Abbott Moves to Block Biaxin Sales

Israeli outfit Teva Pharmaceutical(TEVA Quote), a generic pharmaceutical company, said Tuesday that Abbott Laboratories filed an emergency motion to stop Teva from further sales of its generic Biaxin XL Filmtabs.

Abbott filed the emergency motion in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, where a patent infringement case is pending and a trial is scheduled for March 2007. On June 22, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the federal circuit vacated a June 2005 ruling which had granted Abbott's motion for a preliminary injunction related to the product.

In order to permit this motion to be presented to the judge most familiar with the case, Abbott agreed to a briefing schedule concluding on Thursday and Teva agreed to stop selling this product pending the outcome of the motion, the company said.

The company's stock was trading at $31.84, down 40 cents.