Teva Pharmaceutical (NYSE: TEVA), no stranger to the courts, is on a bit of a losing streak trying to protect its lead multiple sclerosis drug, Copaxone. Because the company focuses on low margin generic drugs, its branded MS drug brings in a roughly fifth of Teva's revenue, but alarmingly nearly half of its profit.
Teva is doing its best to delay generic competition while racing to convert existing Copaxone users to its new 3 times weekly formulation versus the current once a day variant. However, it may be running tight on time as this latest court decision to not impose clinical testing on copycat drugs, went against Teva. Generics could be on the way soon from Momenta (Nasdaq: MNTA), Mylan (Nasdaq: MYL) , and Novartis, but an "at-risk" launch could cost them depending future court decisions.
In this episode of The Motley Fool's health-care show Market Checkup, analysts David Williamson and Michael Douglass discuss the results of this court fight, what it means for investors in both stocks, and why Teva is taking it all the way to the Supreme Court.
