Exhibit 99.1
For Immediate Release
Company name: DAIICHI SANKYO COMPANY, LIMITED
Representative: Takashi Shoda, President and Representative Director
(Code no.: 4568, First Section, Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya Stock Exchanges)
Please address inquiries to Toshio Takahashi, Corporate Officer in Charge,
Corporate Communications Department
Telephone: +81-3-6225-1126
http://www.daiichisankyo.co.jp/
SANKYO COMMENCES PATENT LITIGATION AGAINST BENICAR® ANDA
FILING IN THE UNITED STATES
Tokyo, August 2, 2006 — DAIICHI SANKYO COMPANY, LIMITED announces that SANKYO COMPANY, LIMITED (President: Ikegami, Yasuhiro; hereinafter “Sankyo”), a wholly owned subsidiary of DAIICHI SANKYO COMPANY, LIMITED, and its U.S. subsidiary, DAIICHI SANKYO, INC. (New Jersey, hereinafter “DSI”), commenced litigation against Mylan* in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey for infringement of Sankyo’s U.S. patent (hereinafter “Patent”) covering olmesartan medoxomil, the active ingredient in Sankyo’s antihypertensive drug, Benicar®. Mylan has filed an Abbreviated New Drug Application (“ANDA”) with the Food and Drug Administration seeking to market a generic version of Benicar®.
Sankyo and DSI believe that the Patent, which expires in April 2016 in the United States, is valid and intends to vigorously defend the Patent.
Benicar® is an angiotensin II receptor antagonist that Sankyo independently developed, and is marketed in over 35 countries as an antihypertensive drug which suppresses vasoconstriction by affecting the rennin-angiotensin system to control blood pressure.
*Note:
“Mylan” refers to Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (HQ: West Virginia) and its parent company, Mylan Laboratories, Inc. (HQ: Pennsylvania).
