Companies: Cephalon Inc. Covidien Plc NEW YORK (AP) -- Covidien PLC said Friday it expects to start selling a generic version of the painkiller Actiq in early 2010. Covidien's generic received Food and Drug Administration marketing on Friday. Covidien expects to start selling six different doses of generic Actiq, or fentanyl citrate, which is a powerful and addictive painkiller.

CHICAGO, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Watson Pharmaceuticals (WPI. N: Quote , Profile , Research )said it has reached an agreement to settle a patent dispute with Barr Pharmaceuticals over Watson's Oxytrol, or Oxybutynin Transdermal System product. Under terms of the settlement agreement, Watson has granted Barr a royalty-bearing license to the U.S. patents covering Oxytrol to start marketing

Bayer AG lost a bid to have a court overturn a ruling that said its U.S. patent on the birth-control pill Yasmin is invalid. The full panel of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington declined to revisit an August judgment upholding a lower-court ruling that forced Bayer, Germany's largest drugmaker, to reach an agreement to let Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.'s