BASEL, Switzerland, April 9, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- The Novartis Group (NYSE:NVS) (Other OTC:NVSEF) has won an important ruling in its legal dispute with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) concerning AmoxC (amoxicillin/clavulanic acid), the Group's generic version of GSK's top-selling antibiotic Augmentin. GSK had sought an order to prevent Novartis affiliates from importing and selling AmoxC in the US, claiming that the affiliates used a proprietary GSK strain of bacteria to manufacture the generic product. An Administrative Law Judge of the US International Trade Commission (ITC) dismissed GSK's claims and decided that the strain is not entitled to trade secret protection. He stated that the strain lost any trade secrecy protection that it may have had when GSK entered into a prior settlement agreement with Novartis' subsidiary Biochemie.
Please find press release as pdf under the following link: http://reports.huginonline.com/898714/115833.pdf