In a major setback to pharma major Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, a court in the U.S. has passed an injunction order against the company, refraining it from launching its generic version of Allegra D24 in the U.S. market.
Dr. Reddy's which had received approval from the US FDA to market the drug in March has said that it disagreed with the court's decision and would file an appeal.
According to estimates, the market size for this drug is around $200 million.
The District Court of New Jersey granted a preliminary injunction on the launch of Allegra D 24 based on an application filed by Albany Molecular Research Inc (AMRI) and Sanofi-Aventis.
In September 2009, AMRI filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the court against Dr. Reddy's Lab for infringement of one of its patents related to the manufacturing process for the active ingredient in Allegra, Allegra-D 12, and Allegra-D 24 hour and joined hands with French drug maker Sanofi-Aventis SA, which sells Allegra to file the law suit.
Dr. Reddy's had agreed to hold the launch of Allegra-D in the U.S. markets until the hearing in May. Now the company would need to wait further till its appeal is taken up for hearing.
