04-Sep-09 14:04 ET MDCO The Medicines Co recent angiomax patent activity supports thesis of limited generic competition- Leerink Swann (11.25 +0.98) Leerink Swann notes MDCO announced this morning that it received notification that Teva and Pliva Hrvatska filed ANDAs for Angiomax under Paragraph IV. Since Pliva was acquired by Barr, which was subsequently acquired by Teva, MDCO may only need one settlement to address both ANDAs. They believe both generics had already filed ANDAs under Paragraph III, which did not need to be disclosed until Angiomax's new process patent was added to the FDA's Orange Book yesterday. The firm still does not expect meaningful generic competition before September 2010 , when 6 months of pediatric exclusivity expires on top of the March 2010 expiration of the '404 composition-of-matter patent. They say it remains to be seen whether either of these two companies will launch at risk, but they believe this could lead to a potential settlement between MDCO and the generics similar to what was seen with Medicis (MRX) for Solodyn when Teva launched at risk but then halted shipments in return for keeping the sales made to date.