AstraZeneca sues Finland's Orion over patents
HELSINKI, July 30 (Reuters) - Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc. (AZN.L) said on Monday it had sued Orion Corp. (ORNBV.HE) in Finland, asking the court to find out whether the smaller rival has infringed manufacturing patents for two key drugs.
Orion makes and sells the generic versions of AstraZeneca's psychosis drug Seroquel and prostate cancer drug Casodex in the Finnish market, AstraZeneca Finland's chief executive told Reuters.
"We have valid patents (on them)," CEO Lasse Savonen said, but added that the court case was filed to discover the methods Orion uses to manufacture the drugs.
In Finland before 1995 drugmakers could patent only the method of making a drug.
An Orion spokeswoman declined to comment on the matter.
Earlier, daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reported the court had so far dismissed AstraZeneca's requests to stop sales of the drugs and asked for more information from Orion.
Last year Finnish sales of Seroquel were worth 20 million euros ($27.3 million) and sales of Casodex 11 million, the paper said.
((Reporting by Sami Torma; editing by Jane Baird; Helsinki newsroom, Reuters messaging: sami.torma.reuters.com@reuters.net; tel +358-9-6805-0243, fax +358-9-6805-0220, news@reuters.fi))
($1=.7325 Euro) Keywords: ASTRAZENECA ORION/
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