Indian drug firm Glenmark has lost a patent case against US firm Abbott Laboratories over hypertension drug Tarka,subsequently it will pay USD 16 million in damages to the US firm. A federal jury in Newark,New Jersey,has rejected Glenmark's challenge to the validity of the patent that expires in February 2015. Glenmark argued that the patent covered an invention that was protected by an expired patent. As per the latest order,Jurors awarded USD 15.2 million for lost profits and USD 8,03,514 for higher prices that Abbott would have been able to charge had Glenmark not infringed the patent. While Glenmark officials could not be reached for comments,sources said the company will appeal against the verdict. The Indian firm May last year got the US FDA's final approval to launch the generic version of the drug,whose original patent was held by Sanofi Aventis but later sold to Abbott. This was,however,challenged by Abbott which applied for preliminary injunction but the court had overruled it. Subsequently,Glenmark launched the drug in June in the US market. Abbott,which paid USD 290 million for an exclusive licence to Tarka,was seeking USD 25 million as compensation for profit it lost because of Glenmark's sale of the generic drug. Paris-based Sanofi's patent on Tarka was first approved by drug regulators in 1996.
