Tuesday's Health Winners & Losers

Updated from 2:14 p.m. EDT

Health stocks were mainly flat Tuesday despite a court ruling for the Plavix patent and updates from Bayer(BAY Quote).

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled to uphold the validity and enforceability of Bristol-Myers Squibb(BMY Quote) and Sanofi-Aventis'(SNY Quote) patent for clopidogrel bisulfate, the active ingredient in blood thinner Plavix.

At one point in 2006, the companies had agreed to pay Canadian pharmaceutical company Apotex at least $40 million to keep its product off the market until the patent expires in 2011. Following the failure of the agreement, last August Canadian Apotex marketed the generic version before being stopped by a patent infringement case.

According to the judge's ruling announced today, the patent is protected in the U.S. until November 2011, and damages will be calculated at a future proceeding. Apotex, however, said it intends to immediately appeal the ruling.

Bristol-Myers Squibb rose $1.27, or 4.2%, to $31.58, and Sanofi-Aventis was up 24 cents, or 0.6%, to $41.59.

The Amex Pharmaceutical Index, which includes both Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi-Aventis, was up 0.2% to 353.94.

Bayer AG, which announced it was cutting 20 pipeline products, closed up $1.37, or 1.8%, to $76.38. The company's HealthCare subsidiary announced an agreement with ZymoGenetics(ZGEN Quote) to co-market Recombinant Human Thrombin, rThrombin, sending ZymoGenetics shares up 40 cents, or 2.7%, to $15.32.