Dr Reddy's reach settlement with Wyeth over Effexor

Dr Reddy's Laboratories has reached a deal in New Jersey Federal Court yesterday with Wyeth LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of US-based Pfizer, over a patent litigation involving generic version of blockbuster anti-depressant drug Effexor XR, sources close to the development said.

Though the details of the settlement were not revealed by Dr Reddy's or Pfizer, the deal would allow the former to launch the generic version of Effexor much before the expiry of the patent, according to sources.

Wyeth' s patent for Effexor is set to expire in September 2017. The product had registered sales of about USD2.4 billion for the twelve months ended September 2010.

Sources said that Dr Reddy's settlement with Wyeth is in line with that of generic drug makers like Teva and Lupin which also entered into settlement the US pharma major earlier.

The settlement allowed Teva, an Israeli drugmaker to launch the generic version of the drug after July, 2010 in return for certain percentage of profits from the generic sale. Teva launched the generic version of Effexor in August last year.

As per the terms of settlement with Lupin, the latter would be licensed to launch a generic version of the drug in US after June 1, 2011. That settlement is quite similar to Wyeth''s earlier pacts with companies like Impax Labs and Anchen Pharma for the same drug.