Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE:TEVA) announced settlement of an ongoing patent dispute with biotech giant, Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) related to its generic version of Amgen’s secondary hyperparathyroidism product, Sensipar (cinacalcet HCl).
Sensipar lost patent exclusivity in March last year and Teva recently launched its generic version, at-risk.
The settlement will end the patent dispute between the two companies and the Israel-based drugmaker will make an undisclosed payment to Amgen. Teva will no longer sell its generic product until its license date in mid-year 2021. Other terms of the settlement remain undisclosed.
Shares of Teva have declined 19% in the past year compared with the industry’s decline of 27.8%.
Teva has been active in settling patent issues, which has contributed to its growth. Challenging patents continues to be an important part of its generic product selection and development strategy.
Active patent challenges require litigation, thereby leading to higher general and administration expenses. Therefore, the settlement of these challenges accelerates the availability of low cost generic products and also removes uncertainties associated with litigation.
Teva currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Some better-ranked generic drugmakers are Bausch Health Cos Inc. (NYSE:BHC) and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories (NYSE:RDY) . While Bausch Health has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Dr. Reddy's has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
For Bausch, earnings estimates have moved up 5.8% for 2019 in the past 60 days. The company surpassed earnings estimates in three of the past four quarters with the average beat being 83.24%.
Shares of Dr. Reddy’s have risen 14.9% in the past six months. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings has increased 2.4% for 2019 in the past 60 days.
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Amgen Inc. (AMGN): Free Stock Analysis Report
Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd (RDY): Free Stock Analysis Report
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA): Free Stock Analysis Report
Bausch Health Cos Inc. (BHC): Free Stock Analysis Report
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