Aliso Viejo-based Avanir Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s stock shot up today after a federal court ruled in its favor in a patent lawsuit against two potential generic competitors.
Avanir’s stock closed up 46% to a market value of $758 million.
The company said in a statement that U.S. District Court Judge Leonard P. Stark of the District of Delaware issued a ruling upholding the validity of patents covering Nuedexta, Avanir’s primary drug. Nuedexta is used to treat pseudobulbar affect, a disorder that results in uncontrollable fits of laughing or crying.
Stark also ruled that a pair of new drug applications filed by Hayward-based Impax Laboratories Inc. and Woodcliff Lake, N.J.-based Par Pharmaceuticals Inc. infringed claims on a pair of Avanir’s patents covering Nuedexta.
