Barr faces lawsuit over Prevacid patent

NEW YORK Barr Pharmaceuticals faces a patent infringement lawsuit from three pharmaceutical companies over its application for a generic version of Prevacid.

Three companies, Takeda Pharmaceutical, TAP Pharmaceutical Products and Ethypharm, filed lawsuits in the U.S. District Court of the District of Delaware, alleging that the Montvale, N.J.-based company’s application violated the ‘632 and ‘994 patents.

Takeda, headquartered in Japan, owns the ‘994 patent and has an exclusive license for the ‘632 patent, which France-based Ethypharm owns. TAP, based in Lake Forest, Ill., and now a subsidiary of Takeda America Holdings, has exclusive sublicenses for the patents. The ‘632 patent expires in 2012, while the ‘994 patent expires in 2019.

TAP was a joint venture between Takeda and Abbott that began in 1977 and ended earlier this year. Following the conclusion of the venture, Takeda retained rights to Prevacid, known generically as lansoprazole. Lansoprazole had sales of $550 million in the first quarter of 2008 ending March 31, according to Abbott.