BRIDGEWATER, N.J., April 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The sanofi-aventis Group announced today that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled in its favor. This ruling reverses a prior decision of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in the Group's Lovenox(R) patent infringement suit against Amphastar and Teva. The U.S. District Court had previously ruled on summary judgment that the sanofi-aventis patent asserted in that suit was unenforceable. Sanofi-aventis filed an appeal of the District Court's decision on August 1, 2005.
As a result of the Court of Appeals' ruling, the prior District Court decision is reversed and the case will be returned to the U.S. District Court, where it will proceed on the substantive issues of the infringement, validity, and enforceability of the Lovenox(R) reissue patent (RE 38,743).
Sanofi-aventis welcomes this ruling and will continue to vigorously defend its intellectual property rights before the District Court. Sanofi-aventis believes that the proposed manufacture, marketing, or sale of the defendants' generic enoxaparin sodiums would infringe its U.S. intellectual property rights.
About sanofi-aventis
Sanofi-aventis is the world's third largest pharmaceutical company, ranking number one in Europe. Backed by a world-class R&D organization, sanofi-aventis is developing leading positions in seven major therapeutic areas: cardiovascular, thrombosis, oncology, metabolic diseases, central nervous system, internal medicine, and vaccines. Sanofi-aventis is listed in Paris (EURONEXT: SAN) and in New York .
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts. These statements include financial projections and estimates and their underlying assumptions, statements regarding plans, objectives and expectations with respect to future events, operations, products and services, and statements regarding future performance. Forward-looking statements are generally identified by the words "expect," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "plans" and similar expressions. Although sanofi-aventis' management believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, investors are cautioned that forward-looking information and statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of sanofi-aventis, that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied or projected by, the forward-looking information and statements. These risks and uncertainties include those discussed or identified in the public filings with the SEC and the AMF made by sanofi-aventis, including those listed under "Risk Factors" and "Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" in sanofi-aventis' annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2005. Other than as required by applicable law, sanofi-aventis does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information or statements.
Contact: Amy Ba, 908-243-4261,
Lisa Kennedy, 908-243-6361,
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