US court clears sale of Dr Reddy's drug

Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical major Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL) stated that the US District Court of New Jersey had lifted an injunction and cleared the sale of its generic version of Sanofi-Aventis allergy treatment drug Allegra D24.

The US FDA approved DRL’s generic version on March 16, 2010. However, the country's second largest drug-maker had been excluded from launching the generic product since the June 2010 hearing of a petition filed by Sanofi-Aventis and Albany Molecular Research

“Plaintiff’s Sanofi-Aventis and Albany Molecular Research have been required to post a security with the Court, an amount of US $40 mn towards the possibility that the injunction had been wrongfully granted,” DRL said adding that it intended to “to pursue an award of this security.”

Allegra-D, used for treatment of allergies like sneezing, cough, runny nose and water eyes, is reported to be having a market size of $ 200 million.