Plavix Court Fight Continues

The Great Plavix Patent Battle was scheduled to resume in federal court Monday, with Bristol-Myers Squibb(BMY Quote) and Sanofi-Aventis(SNY Quote) try to show that generic versions of the drug would cause them irreparable harm.

The two drug giants are asking a federal judge to stop the Canadian drugmaker Apotex from selling reduced-price copies of the anticoagulant. They also want the judge to order a recall of all generic Plavix that Apotex has been selling since Aug. 8.

However, it's unclear how quickly the judge, Stanley H. Stein, would act on the companies' request for a preliminary injunction. Oral arguments began Friday, and a complex issue like the Plavix patent dispute doesn't lend itself to a quick decision from the bench. According to Reuters, the judge's clerk said a ruling wouldn't be issued Monday.

Sanofi-Aventis holds the Plavix patent, and Bristol-Myers owns the U.S. marketing rights. They want a preliminary injunction to halt what they say is a flood of generic Plavix until a federal judge can hear their patent infringement claim against Apotex. However, a full trial probably wouldn't start until January, and a decision would likely take several months.

The companies say they can't wait that long, contending that such a delay would drastically erode sales of the drug, a blood-clot preventer. Last year, Plavix contributed $3.8 billion, or 20%, of Bristol-Myers' total revenue, and $2.45 billion, or 7.4%, of Sanofi-Aventis' sales.