Bristol Needs a Break

Lawyers for Bristol-Myers Squibb(BMY) and Sanofi-Aventis(SNY) are scheduled to appear in federal court Friday morning in a last-ditch effort to protect the blockbuster drug Plavix from a generic competitor.

They want Judge Sidney H. Stein to issue a preliminary injunction against Canada's Apotex, which has been shipping generic versions of the anticoagulant since late last week. They also want the judge to order a recall of all generic Plavix held by distributors.

Bristol-Myers and Sanofi-Aventis say they need both rulings to avoid further damage to sales of Plavix until the court can rule on their patent-infringement suit against Apotex. Analysts speculate that some wholesalers have received many months' worth of the generic drug.

Attorneys for the brand-name companies doubt that a full patent-challenge trial would be held until January, making the decision on the injunction an important one. Patent-infringement rulings can take months to prepare.

Plavix is New York-based Bristol-Myers' biggest product, accounting for $3.8 billion in sales last year, or 20% of its total revenue. The drug is the second-leading seller for France's Sanofi-Aventis, contributing $2.45 billion to last year's sales, or 7.4% of its revenue.

Without a preliminary injunction, the companies say they would be "irreparably harmed" if Apotex keeps selling low-price copies of Plavix.

"The economic and other consequences from Apotex's launch, now that it is underway, are impossible to reverse fully," the companies say in their Aug. 14 petition to the court. "But the entry of a preliminary injunction would surely lessen the injury -- the sooner the better."