Sanofi SA (ADR) (NYSE:SNY) is suing Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) for what it claims are several instances of patent infringement.
The Sanofi patent infringement lawsuit against Merck was filed on Monday in the the U.S. District Court of Delaware. The goal of the lawsuit is to keep the compay from launching its own rival version of SNY’s Lantus diabetes drug in the United States.
Sanofi said that it started to take legal action after Merck submitted new drug applications to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. It claims that as many as 10 of its patents are being infringed on by the healthcare company. A spokeswoman for MRK argues that it’s products don’t infringe on SNY’s patents.
Lantus is Sanofi best-selling diabetes drug. The move to stop Merck from launching its own version of the diabetes drug comes as more insulin offerings cause its revenue to decline. SNY said it expects sales from diabetes drugs, which makes up about 20% of its revenue, to continue to decline, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Sanofi isn’t likely to win its lawsuit against Merck. This is due to Lantus losing its patent protection in 2015. However, the healthcare company is likely hoping to pull in some extra revenue by delaying MRK’s drug. It did the same thing with Eli Lilly and Co (NYSE:LLY) and Boehringher Ingelheim in 2014 when the two tried to launch their own diabetes drugs in the United States.
SNY stock was up 1% and MRK stock was down slightly as of Noon Monday.
