Teva Wins Ruling Tossing $235 Million Glaxo Drug Verdict

(Bloomberg) -- Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. won a court ruling tossing a $235 million verdict over its copy of GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s Coreg heart drug.

Teva’s generic version didn’t infringe a Glaxo patent, U.S. District Judge Leonard P. Stark ruled Wednesday.

Glaxo’s patent is for the use of the compound carvedilol to lessen the chance of death from congestive heart failure. The company claimed Teva infringed the patent, even when it was only selling its version of Coreg for hypertension.

The judge said that there wasn’t enough proof Teva caused doctors to prescribe the generic for congestive heart failure. Instead, there was evidence that doctors were relying on other information, the judge said in the ruling, issued in Wilmington, Delaware, federal court.

Teva rose 3 percent in New York Stock Exchange composite trading at 1:47 p.m. after the judge threw out the verdict.

Sarah Spencer, a U.S.-based spokeswoman for Glaxo, didn’t immediately return a call and email seeking comment on the judge’s decision. Teva officials couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.

Stark denied Teva’s request to have the patent ruled invalid.

The patent expired in June 2015, but the June 2017 verdict was based on Teva’s sales of its generic version of Coreg before the patent expired. Teva launched its generic in 2007.

The case is GlaxoSmithKline LLC v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc., 14-cv-878, U.S. District Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington)

--With assistance from Dana Elfin and Jef Feeley

To contact the reporters on this story: Susan Decker in Washington at sdecker1@bloomberg.net, Christopher Yasiejko in Wilmington, Delaware, at cyasiejko1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Joe Schneider

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