The US Supreme Court turned away an appeal by Apotex that sought to invalidate the patent that protects Bristol-Myers Squibb and sanofi-aventis' Plavix (clopidogrel) from generic competition until November 2011.

The generic drugmaker argued that the patent's "only function has been to prolong sanofi-aventis' monopoly by eight years," following the expiration of another Plavix patent in 2003. The patent expiring in 2011 had been previously upheld by a US district court and by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington.