ALNY - Bausch Health plummets 50% following judge's Xifaxan patent order

• Trading in Bausch Health Companies ( BHC ) was briefly halted Thursday morning and is currently down 50 % after a Delaware federal court judge issued an oral order on patent litigation over Xifaxan.
• Judge Richard Andrews has directed Bausch ( BHC ) subsidiary Salix Pharmaceuticals to meet with generics manufacturer Norwich Pharmaceuticals to meet and file a joint final judgment by Aug. 3.
• Norwich is trying to market a generic version of Xifaxan (rifaximin), an irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea drug.
• "The parties should proceed on the assumption that the Court's conclusions will be: Norwich's ANDA will induce infringement of the asserted HE patent claims, and would induce infringement of the asserted IBS-D, and Polymorph patent claims if they were valid.," Andrews wrote.
• "Norwich has failed to show that the asserted HE claims are obvious and that they lack adequate written description. The asserted Polymorph and IBS-D claims are invalid as obvious.
• Although Bausch won on the HE and polymorphs patent claims, it did not win on IBS-related claims which would allow the generic to launch.

For further details see: