Ranbaxy will challenge Merck patent dispute

Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. will fight a challenge by Merck & Co., the third-largest US drugmaker, to prevent it from marketing a generic copy of the antibiotic Primaxin I.M. on grounds the Indian company infringed a patent.

Ranbaxy, India's biggest drugmaker, applied to the US Food and Drug Administration to sell its version of the injectable medicine before Merck's patent expires September 15, 2009, according to a complaint filed last month in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware. Merck, based in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, reported $705 million in Primaxin sales for 2006.

``We don't think we've infringed,'' Peter Burema, the president of Ranbaxy Europe's global pharmaceutical business, said in an interview in Johannesburg today. ``If need be, we will go to court, litigation is part of what we do.''

Ranbaxy has the capacity to begin marketing and manufacturing medicines ``immediately upon receiving regulatory approval,'' Merck said in the lawsuit, which asks a judge for an order prohibiting sales during the term of its patent.

"We respect patents, because Ranbaxy itself has patents,'' Burema said. "But we don't respect frivolous patents. Patent law, as it is now, protects companies long enough to earn back money. If they then try to add-on or bolt-on Mickey Mouse patents, they're free to do so but shouldn't expect us to sit back and not launch or not to challenge them.''