DUSA Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ NMS:DUSA) announced today it has filed a patent infringement suit in the United States District Court in Trenton, New Jersey alleging that a River's Edge Pharmaceuticals' LLP niacinimide product infringes US patent 6,979,468. In response to a motion put forward with the filing by DUSA the Court granted an expedited hearing date of May 5, 2006 in order to hear arguments on a motion for preliminary injunction to enjoin River's Edge Pharmaceuticals LLP from selling its alternative product to DUSA's product, Nicomide®. A lawsuit was filed by River's Edge Pharmaceuticals, LLC on March 28, 2006, alleging, among other things, that Sirius Laboratories, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of DUSA, agreed to authorize River's Edge to market a generic version of Nicomide®, and that the United States patent covering Nicomide® issued to Sirius in December, 2005 is invalid. The River's Edge action was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Gainesville Division. Nicomide® is one of the key products DUSA acquired from Sirius Laboratories, Inc. in its recent merger, which closed on March 10, 2006.
