NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Eli Lilly (LLY) - Get Report shares are down 1.87% to $69.27 in early market trading on Friday after a German court ruled against it in a patent case involving its Alimta lung cancer drug.

The court ruled that generic drug maker Actavis (ACT) - Get Report would not infringe on the company's patent by marketing an alternative salt form of the Alimta, known as pemetrexed, once the drug's compound patent expires at the end of this year.

"We strongly disagree with the ruling by the German Court of Appeal regarding Alimta's vitamin regimen patent," said the company's senior VP and general counsel Michael J. Harrington. ""Although Alimta's compound patent remains in force and is expected to provide exclusivity in Germany through December 2015, we continue to believe that Alimta's vitamin regimen patent would be infringed by the entry of generic pemetrexed products, including alternative salt forms, in Europe prior to June, 2021."

Harrington also said that the company would seek permission to appeal the lower court's ruling to the German Supreme Court.

TheStreet Ratings team rates LILLY (ELI) & CO as a Buy with a ratings score of B. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate LILLY (ELI) & CO (LLY) a BUY. This is driven by some important positives, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and expanding profit margins. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had sub par growth in net income."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

• You can view the full analysis from the report here: LLY Ratings Report

LLY

data by

YCharts