(Reuters) – A federal appeals court on Friday reinstated a 2017 jury verdict that required Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd to pay GlaxoSmithKline Plc $235.5 million for infringing a patent for its blood pressure drug Coreg.
The 2-1 decision was issued by the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.
Glaxo, Teva and their respective lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A Delaware jury had ordered Teva to pay Glaxo $234.1 million covering lost profit and $1.4 million in royalties for inducing doctors to prescribe a Coreg generic, with a label approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that indicated it could be used for the treatment of heart failure.
U.S. District Judge Leonard Stark later overturned the verdict, saying the evidence did not support a finding of infringement.
But in Friday’s decision, Circuit Judge Pauline Newman said “substantial evidence” supported the verdict for “induced infringement,” including promotional materials, press releases, product catalogs, the FDA labels and witness testimony.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Matthew Lewis)
