AstraZeneca announced that it will amend its lawsuit against Mylan Pharmaceuticals to seek treble damages for the willful and intentional infringement of AstraZeneca's Prilosec (omeprazole) formulation patents. In addition, AstraZeneca is filing suit to recover willful infringement damages against Esteve Quimica, S.A. and Laboratorios Dr. Esteve, S.A., which are formulators of the Mylan omeprazole product. AstraZeneca reaffirms its commitment to vigorously defend its right to patent protection both in the remaining omeprazole patent infringement cases now pending in New York federal court, and in relation to the Schwarz/KUDCo formulation case now under appeal. The company will continue to monitor the situation closely and retains recourse to further legal action.

On August 4, 2003 Mylan Pharmaceuticals announced it had begun sale of the 10mg and 20mg dosages of omeprazole delayed release-capsules.

Mylan is one of five defendants in the second wave of cases currently in the discovery phase. A trial date has not been set. Mylan has decided to launch at risk its generic omeprazole product even though AstraZeneca's two formulation patents were found valid following a trial in 2002, involving four other generic manufacturers. In a 275-page opinion, Federal District Court Judge Barbara S. Jones found that three of four generic manufacturers infringed AstraZeneca's formulation patents. Judge Jones ruled that Schwarz' formulation did not infringe the patents and Schwarz/KUDCo launched its version of generic omeprazole in December 2002.