Abbott's patent-tweaking draws fire

To your list of patent-lawsuits-to-watch, add a set of cases over TriCor, the Abbott Laboratories cholesterol med. TriCor is 33 years old, but it's still on patent, thanks to a series of formulation and other tweaks Abbot made along the way. That's no small thing, either: TriCor snared $1.2 billion in 2007 sales.

The thing is, state and federal officials are probing whether all those tweaks--and Abbott's tactics in protecting TriCor from generic poaching--amount to antitrust violations. In one instance, Teva mounted a patent challenge on TriCor, but during the mandated Hatch-Waxman 30-month waiting period, Abbott reformulated the drug into a tablet and repurchased all the capsules. When the 30 months expired, Teva's capsules were no longer bioequivalent. So Teva applied to make tablets. During the 30-month waiting period, Abbott reformulated again.

Teva has since counter-sued, alleging antitrust violations. Now, some 25 state attorneys general have sued [1], too, siding (in effect) with Teva. The Israeli generics maker's lawsuit is set for trial in November. Count on it to be closely watched, because the outcome may set patent-extending ground rules for the entire industry.

- see the Wall Street Journal article [2]

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States sue Abbott for 'blocking' generics [1]
Mixed results for Tricor in major diabetes study [3]