Teva abstains from Protonix fray

Teva Pharmaceuticals' dilemma: A rival generic drugmaker is ready to flood the market with a copycat Protonix, and Wyeth is set on nabbing at least some generic revenue by selling its own copycat. So what does Teva do?

Nothing, at least for now. The company announced Friday that it has no plans to relaunch the generic Protonix that got it to the negotiating table with Wyeth late last year.

Here's the background: Teva and Wyeth had been fighting over Protonix's patent. Seemingly confident of its position, Teva launched its copycat version. Wait a minute, Wyeth said; we'll talk. Then talks broke down, and last week Wyeth said it would sell its own generic Protonix. India's Sun Pharma chimed in, saying it was planning to launch its copycat, too.

So why would Teva abstain? An analyst tells the WSJ Health Blog that if Teva relaunched, it would have to cut the price because of additional generic competition, and the it would have to rebate customers that bought in December. So maybe it's just holding back for now.

- check out Teva's press release
- read the item in the WSJ Health Blog

Related Articles:
Wyeth makes its own Protonix copy. Report
Wyeth loses a round to Protonix knockoffs. Report
Sun copycat to cut $500M off Wyeth sales. Report