J&J shares fall after court refuses to block Zytiga generics

Johnson & Johnson’s share price took a beating this week after the US appeals court declined its bid to stop sales of cheap generic versions of its blockbuster prostate cancer drug Zytiga. The company’s shares fell around 3% because of the court decision relating to Zytiga (abiraterone), which is the biggest-selling oncology drug from J&J’s pharma unit Janssen. In the third quarter alone Zytiga generated US sales of $527 million and the company is fighting hard to prevent generic rivals from reaching the market and disrupting revenues. Thanks to an approval in early metastatic prostate cancer earlier this year, sales have been growing and were up 43% compared with the same quarter last year. But Zytiga’s composition patent expired in 2016 and Reuters reported that a US appeals court on Wednesday declined a request by J&J for a temporary restraining order blocking sales of generics. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said it would not block Mylan and other companies from selling Zytiga generics while J&J seeks emergency relief at the US Supreme Court.