Abbott Labs sues Sandoz over kidney drug

Abbott Laboratories, the maker of blood-sugar monitors and heart stents, sued generic drugmaker Sandoz AG, which plans to produce and market a version of the Zemplar drug for kidney disease.

Sandoz, a unit of Novartis AG, has petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval to produce the generic drug, Abbott said in a lawsuit filed today in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware. Four patents on Zemplar expire between 2012 and 2018, Abbott claims.

Abbott, which licenses the patents from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation at the University of Wisconsin, seeks an order halting Sandoz from seeking approval for the copy. Sandoz has sent letters to Abbott claiming the patents are invalid and unenforceable, according to the lawsuit.

A U.S.-based representative from Basel, Switzerland-based Novartis didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.