Novo's motion to block US Exubera denied

The US District Court for the Southern District of New York has denied a motion for a preliminary injunction that would have blocked further sales of world drug giant Pfizer's inhalable insulin medication, Exubera, throughout the country. The preliminary injunction was requested by Danish insulin giant Novo Nordisk as part of a patent infringement case that will be heard by the same court.

Exubera is the only inhalable form of insulin to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and the decision allows the product to remain on the US market, and available to patients, while the case proceeds to trial. The Judge said that the public's need for a less invasive antidiabetic outweighed Novo's claims of patent infringement.