US appeals court says no to Teva's generic Evista
* Appeals court upholds ban on selling generic Evista
* Evista a big seller for Lilly
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Eli Lilly & Co won a patent battle protecting its osteoporosis drug Evista Wednesday, as an appeals court declined to toss out a permanent injunction preventing production of a generic copy of the medicine.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that a lower court was correct in banning Teva Pharmaceuticals Ltd from making a generic Evista and declined to overturn a permanent injunction.
But it also upheld a decision by the district court in Indiana that portions -- or claims -- of the Lilly patents were invalid.
Lilly's Evista, which had sales of $259.5 million in the second quarter of 2010, is used to treat osteoporosis in post-menopausal women. (Reporting by Diane Bartz, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)
