Glaxo Faces Amended Suit Over HIV Drugs

GlaxoSmithKline is facing new allegations in an antitrust lawsuit by an AIDS group that is challenging the lack of generic competition for the company’s two HIV drugs.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation added allegations concerning the drugs to an antitrust lawsuit it filed in July in Los Angeles. The group alleges that Glaxo lied to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office when it sought a patent on Retrovir, known as AZT and a key ingredient in both drugs. The lawsuit says Glaxo didn’t invent AZT nor did it conduct the research showing AZT’s use in fighting the human immunodeficiency virus.

“We’ve never claimed to have invented AZT,” said a Glaxo spokeswoman. Scientists with a Glaxo predecessor “identified its use in the treatment of AIDS.”