Roche Palo Alto wins eye medicine patent case against Apotex

WASHINGTON Roche Palo Alto, a subsidiary of Roche Holding, recently won a legal battle with generic drug company Apotex over a patent for an eye inflammation medicine, according to published reports.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a summary judgment Roche won in U.S. district court for the Northern District of California. Roche Palo Alto and Allergan, which holds the application for Acular LS in the United Stated, brought the suit in May 2005 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California after receiving notice that Apotex had filed an application for a generic version of the drug with a Paragraph IV certification on the drug’s ‘493 patent. The patent has pediatric exclusivity until November 2009.

The case dates back to 2001, when Roche’s predecessor, Syntex, sued Apotex after it filed an application to sell a generic version of the eye medicine Acular.

Acular LS (ketorolac tromethamine) ophthalmic solution 0.4 percent is indicated for the reduction of ocular pain and burning or stinging following corneal refractive surgery.