On 2 November 2010 Krka Pharma GmbH, Vienna, (hereafter Krka Pharma), a subsidiary of Krka, d. d., Novo mesto, received the decision of the Commercial Court in Vienna that prohibits Krka Pharma from introducing any form of product on the Austrian market which contains the active ingredient esomeprazole with optical purity of more than 99.8% enantiometric excess due to alleged infringement of the AstraZeneca patent EP 1 020 461.

The Commercial Court has granted the temporary injunction on request of AstraZeneca AB, Sweden and AstraZeneca Österreich GmbH, Austria.

Krka Pharma will file an appeal against this decision, however the appeal does not suspend the decision execution.

Krka Pharma is confident that it does not infringe the patent and believes that this will be proved in the further proceeding.

Krka Pharma has started to market its product with esomeprazole ingredient in Austria in April 2010.