Ruling favors Bristol on Plavix

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Sanofi-Aventis won an appeals court ruling Friday that will help them block generic competition to the blood thinner Plavix, the world’s No. 2 selling-drug, in the U.S. until 2011.

Bristol-Myers and Sanofi said that as a result of the ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, they will seek reimbursement from Canadian drug maker Apotex Inc. for its decision to enter the market in 2006, although there may be limits on how much they can collect. Bristol-Myers has said it lost as much as $1.75 billion in sales after Apotex flooded the market in a three-week period.