AstraZeneca announced today that it has filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey against Ranbaxy Laboratories for willful infringement of AstraZeneca's patents protecting NEXIUM® (esomeprazole magnesium).

The lawsuit is in response to an Abbreviated New Drug Application filed by Ranbaxy with the US Food and Drug Administration regarding Ranbaxy's intent to market a generic version of AstraZeneca's NEXIUM in the US prior to the expiration of six AstraZeneca Patents: 5,714,504; 5,877,192; 6,369,085; 6,428,810, 6,875,872 and 5, 948,789. The expiration dates for these patents range from 2014 through 2019.

AstraZeneca has full confidence in and will continue vigorously to defend and enforce its intellectual property rights protecting NEXIUM.

astrazeneca/pressrelease

View drug information on Nexium.