I'm not Dew's source but the 3rd party could be Novopharm, a private comp Teva bought in 2000. Aventis sued Novopharm in 2005 on Novo-enoxaparin in Canada.
Sanofi is fighting a two-front war against the threat of generic competition. Not only is Plavix getting squeezed by Apotex, but the patent for Sanofi's top earner Lovenox, another blood thinner, has been challenged by four manufacturers of generic drugs.
Two separate partnerships of drug makers - Teva Pharmaceuticals (down $0.36 to $34.27, Charts)/Amphastar and Novartis' (up $0.18 to $57.19, Charts) Sandoz division/Momenta (down $0.06 to $15.70, Charts) - have filed applications with the FDA to produce generic versions of Lovenox. The drug is essential to Sanofi's earnings and revenue, totaling $2.8 billion in 2005 sales, and the patent runs until 2012. If other companies are successful in producing in cheap, generic versions of the blood thinner, then Sanofi's sales could plunge.
Sanofi has sued the Jerusalem-based Teva, the biggest generic maker in the world, as well as its partner, the privately-held Amphastar. A spokesperson for Momenta said her company was not directly sued by Sanofi, but partner Sandoz was the subject of a suit. <snip>