Shares of Amarin (NASDAQ: AMRN) were down 68% at 7:27 p.m. EDT in after hours trading, after a judge in the U.S. District Court of Nevada ruled for generic-drug makers Hikma Pharmaceuticals (OTC: HKMPY) and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories (NYSE: RDY) in a lawsuit with Amarin over patents on Amarin's fish oil drug, Vascepa, which is approved to treat patients with inflated triglyercide levels.
Hikma and Dr. Reddy's filed abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs) with the Food and Drug Administration to sell generic versions of Amarin's Vascepa, which prompted a lawsuit from Amarin claiming that the generics infringed on the company's patents.
Following a trial in January, the judge ruled today that the "defendants' proposed ANDA products will induce infringement of the asserted claims, but all the asserted claims are invalid as obvious."