Court Ruling

AstraZeneca PLC
19 December 2000

ASTRAZENECA WINS 'LOSEC' PATENT LITIGATION IN CANADA

The Federal Court of Canada has ruled in favour of
AstraZeneca in litigation between AstraZeneca and
RhoxalPharma Inc. under the Patented Medicines (Notice Of
Compliance) Regulations.

Rhoxalpharma had alleged that its omeprazole product,
developed by Andrx, would not infringe AstraZeneca's
formulation patents for 'Losec'. The court found on
the evidence that RhoxalPharma's allegation of non-
infringement was not justified and therefore prohibited
the Minister of Health from giving RhoxalPharma marketing
approval for the generic product until expiry of the both
formulation patents in June 2009.  Omeprazole is the
active ingredient in 'Losec'.

'As a result of AstraZeneca's purpose and resolve when it
comes to asserting patent rights, there is still no
generic competition in Canada, despite the fact that the
patent for the active substance, omeprazole, expired in
July 1999,' said Dr. Martin Nicklasson, Executive Vice
President, GI Franchise.

In Canada AstraZeneca has several patents covering
'Losec', among those are patents for salts, formulations
and uses, and intends to fully enforce its patent rights.
These patents expire between 2007 and 2014.   AstraZeneca 
uses the trade name 'Prilosec' for 'Losec' in the US.


Further Enquiries:

Michael Olsson:    Tel. [phone]
Ed Seage:          Tel. [phone]
Jorgen Winroth:    Tel. [phone]