Judge halts sales of generic Plavix.

(From AFX Europe (Focus))

NEW YORK (AFX) - A federal judge blocked sales of a generic version of blood thinner Plavix Thursday while he considers the merits of a claim that a Canadian pharmaceutical company improperly entered the market.

U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein issued his written ruling Thursday after a two-day hearing in which Sanofi-Aventis and its partner Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. insisted that the Canadian company, Apotex Inc., must be forced to stop selling its product. Stein denied demands by Bristol-Myers and Sanofi-Aventis that Apotex be forced to withdraw from the market the generic product it had already sold.

Apotex had argued …