Shire gets favorable ruling against Allergan in Lialda patent case

[March 29, 2016]  (Reuters) - A U.S. district court on Monday ruled in favor of Shire Plc, preventing Allergan Plc from selling generic versions of Lialda, the ulcerative colitis drug, in the United States until 2020.

Judge Donald Middlebrooks of the Southern Florida district court said that Allergan's Watson unit had infringed on two claims of the Lialda drug patent.

Lialda, which was approved in 2007 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, brought in $684.4 million in sales for the year ended Dec. 31, contributing 11 percent to Shire's total sales of $6.1 billion.

The U.S. Supreme Court last year sent back Shire's Lialda drug patent case to a lower court for further proceedings.

The appeals court had in a March 2014 ruling thrown out a lower court decision in Shire's favor over the drug that treats inflammatory bowel conditions. The district court had found that a competing product manufactured by Allergan's Watson unit had infringed on Shire's patent.

Allergan's shares were down 1 percent at $276.51 on the New York Stock Exchange. Shire's U.S.-listed shares were up 0.3 percent at $163.35.

The case is Shire v. Watson, Southern District Court of Florida, No. 12-60862.

(Reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

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