Amarin's
But when patents held by Pronova BioPharma were upheld in court later in the day, shares rose quickly and ended with a 6% increase on the day.
Pronova BioPharma's patents don't have any bearing on how long Amarin's AMR101 remains free from direct generic competition, but it indirectly affects the drug. Pronova's patents protect Lovaza, AMR101's direct competitor that Pronova licensed to GlaxoSmithKline
The upheld patents are set to expire in March 2013 and April 2017, but there will be a generic version of Lovaza on the market before then. Pronova settled with Apotex last year, allowing the generic-drug maker to sell its copycat beginning in the first quarter of 2015. With the win in court against the other generic-drug makers, settling with Apotex doesn't look like a particularly good move for Glaxo, Pronova, or even Amarin, but that's the way things go sometimes.
Assuming AMR101 is approved in July, there's plenty of time to get the drug established before it has to face generic competition. I wouldn't be shocked if the sales took a small hit at that point; the same phenomenon happened when Merck's
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