Teva Loses Patent Case for Top-Selling Drug

A Teva Center in Canada. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

Teva is the world’s largest generic drugmaker, so when its stocks went plummeting on Tuesday, investors weren’t happy. Its stock tumbled as much as six percent on Tuesday morning to its lowest level since 2007, Bloomberg reports. The company is caught in an infringement battle—on Tuesday a Delaware court rejected four of Teva’s patent infringement claims on its top-selling multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone.

The dismissal potentially opens the floodgates for generic competition for Copaxone, one of Teva’s brand-name treatments that’s fed much of the company’s revenue. According to Bloomberg, the multiple sclerosis drug contributed about 20 percent to Teva’s revenue in the last quarter alone and an estimated 42 percent of its profits in 2016.

In January, the company said its expects the drug to generate sales of between $3.8 billion and $3.9 billion this year if generic competition isn’t a factor, the PBJ reports.

Teva, with its U.S. headquarters in North Wales, Montgomery County, says it will fight the ruling with an immediate appeal to protect the Coxapone franchise. But the appeal probably won’t do much to placate dissatisfied investors in the immediacy. The court’s ruling isn’t the first bout of trouble to come Teva’s way this year. The company already hit investors with its low estimated revenue earnings for 2017, which it cut by $1.5 billion due to its underperformance, Bloomberg reports. The company also has a hefty debt load of $36.8 billion, which might prevent it from replacing Coxapone any time soon.

Investors are calling for the Israeli company to tighten up its management and deliver to save its credibility.

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