In a bid to speed up the litigation process, the leading home-grown pharma company Dr Reddy's Laboratories has withdrawn its challenge against GlaxoSmithKline's "compound" patent for anti-nausea drug Zofran.
The compound patent on Zofran expires in January 2005. The court trial in the United States for the anti-nausea drug is set for May 25 this year.
"In view of the timelines, we have decided to withdraw the challenge on the compound patent so that the process can be speeded up with greater focus on the two 'method of use' patents," a company spokesperson said.
The Hyderabad-based company in a statement made it clear that it has not completely withdrawn the patent challenge case. The withdrawal pertains only to compound patent and the challenge on two 'method of use' patents continues.
The withdrawal of one of its challenges means the Indian company will have to wait until the patent expires before it is able to sell its version in the US.