Bristol-Myers Wins Plavix Ruling

Updated from 9:34 a.m. EDT

Bristol-Myers Squibb's (BMY Quote) shares rose Tuesday after a judge in New York upheld the patent on Plavix, the anticoagulant that serves as its biggest-selling drug.

Plavix is licensed in the U.S. to Bristol-Myers by France's Sanofi-Aventis (SNY Quote). The ruling, which protects the Plavix patent until November 2011, is a major win for both companies.

Canada's Apotex, a generic-drug maker, was attempting to invalidate the patent, but the court sided with the Plavix sellers. Bristol-Myers climbed $1.55, or 5.1%, to $31.85 in heavy trading. Sanofi-Aventis rose 32 cents to $41.67 on greater-than-average volume.

Plavix provided $3.26 billion in sales last year for Bristol-Myers, or 18% of total revenue. In 2005, Plavix accounted for $3.82 billion, or 20% of total revenue. Last year, Plavix contributed $3 billion to Sanofi-Aventis. It's the French company's second-largest drug.

Federal Judge Sidney Stein ruled that Apotex "failed to prove by clear and convincing evidence that [the Plavix patent] is invalid or unenforceable."

In deciding for Bristol-Myers and Sanofi-Aventis, the judge permanently blocked Apotex from selling a generic version during the life of the patent. He will assess damages at a later date. Apotex said it will appeal.

Due to a complex series of events, Apotex sold generic copies of Plavix for three weeks last August before being blocked by a court injunction. The injunction remained in effect, pending the patent-infringement trial for which oral arguments were held in early 2007.