September 25th, 2009

The Philadelphia Inq reports

Wyeth, which has major operations in the Philadelphia area, lost its bid for a court order requiring the Food and Drug Administration to withdraw or suspend the agency’s approval of a generic form of the company’s antibiotic Zosyn. U.S. District Judge Ellen Huvelle in Washington denied Wyeth’s request for a temporary restraining order, saying it failed to demonstrate a likelihood of success on the merits. Wyeth had contended the FDA acted arbitrarily in approving an application from Orchid Healthcare, a unit of India’s Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd., to sell a copy of Zosyn. “The FDA specifically considered plaintiff’s evidence as to the risk of harm and rejected it as ’speculative and conclusory in nature,’ ” Huvelle said in the order. – Bloomberg News