Pharmalot -- Merck just lost some patent protection on its Zetia cholesterol drug. A federal judge in Newark, New Jersey, invalidated several items that were added in 2002, when Schering-Plough (now owned by Merck) obtained a reissued patent. But US District Court Judge Jose Linares ruled the patent shouldn’t have been reissued because a valid and enforceable one already exists, The New Jersey Law Journal reports.
