Teva sues Novartis, Momenta over Copaxone patent

By Bill Berkrot

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd sued Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG and Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc on Thursday, accusing them of infringing patents on its multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone.

Israel-based Teva had said in July it intended to sue after the Sandoz unit of Novartis applied to U.S. regulators to sell a generic version of the medicine.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, claims that any generic version of Copaxone infringes patents that Teva contends are valid and enforceable.

Teva, itself a large maker of generic drugs, has maintained it has patent protection on Copaxone in the United States until May 2014 and in much of Europe until 2015.

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Momenta said last month that the generic Copaxone application asserts that Teva's patents are invalid.

Copaxone, known chemically as glatiramer acetate, is an injected medicine that had U.S. sales of $1.1 billion last year.

A Sandoz spokesman said the company would not comment on pending litigation. Momenta could not immediately be reached for comment.

Teva is seeking to have the court declare that the defendants have infringed its patents, and that any approval of a Novartis generic not be granted until after Teva's patents expire.

The suit also seeks to prevent Novartis and Momenta from any commercial manufacture or sale of a generic Copaxone.

It asks the court to order Sandoz to withdraw its application seeking to sell the generic and award Teva monetary damages and interest to compensate it for misappropriation of Teva trade secrets as well as any further monetary relief the court deems just and proper.

(Editing by Richard Chang)