The trial examiners in the Japanese patent office have granted judgment in favour of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. with regard to Sankyo's patent no. 3463875 in Japan. Following a trial last August, the patent office found Sankyo's patent relating to pravastatin free of epipravastatin to be invalid based on prior intellectual property applications filed by Teva in Japan.

The favourable ruling is the second decision regarding this product that has been granted to Teva this year. In April, the Japanese patent office invalidated Sankyo's patent no. 3236282 in Japan, which relates to a process for the extraction of pravastatin with iso-butyl acetate. This decision was also based on earlier filed patent applications by Teva relating to pravastatin. As noted by the trial examiners, this request by Teva for invalidation of Sankyo's patent represented the first time that a generic drug company was challenging the patents of a brand name company in Japan, claims a company release.

Teva currently manufactures and supplies the bulk active pharmaceutical ingredient for the finished dosage pravastatin in several countries including Japan.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., headquartered in Israel, is among the top 20 pharmaceutical companies and among the largest generic pharmaceutical companies in the world. The company develops, manufactures and markets generic and innovative human pharmaceuticals and active pharmaceutical ingredients.