Competition to hit Glaxo
15 Jan 2000
An American court has overturned Glaxo Wellcome's appeal against a ruling allowing Canadian drugs firm Novopharm to make and sell a generic version of Glaxo Wellcome's anti-ulcer drug, Zantac in the US. Novopharm is making ranitidine hydrochloride, the active ingredient of Zantac, in its `form 1' crystalline state - the patent for this expires in July. Zantac itself has a different crystalline structure, covered by a patent that expires in 2002. GW had argued that one form could not be made without producing the other.
