€3bn heartburn for AstraZeneca

Drug firm AstraZeneca saw almost €3bn wiped off its value today after it lost a key patent on best-selling heartburn treatment Nexium.

AstraZeneca said it was “disappointed” with the decision by the European Patent Office (EPO) to withdraw the patent for Nexium.

Worldwide sales of the drug hit $4.6bn (€3.5bn) last year of which $1.1bn (€833m) were in Europe.

Shares in AstraZeneca fell more than 4% today to cut its stock market value from €65.4bn to €62.5bn.

The ruling was made by Munich-based EPO after an appeal from German drug maker Ratiopharm.

The patent, which protects the heartburn pill from cheap copies, was not meant to expire until 2014.

The news came at a difficult time for AstraZeneca, which was relying on established medicines such as Nexium to drive sales following the failure of clinical trials for new drugs, such as the stroke drug NXY-059.