Ireland has become a bitter battleground between two pharma giants over a crucial blood thinning drug, patents, and generic medicines. Teva Pharmaceuticals, the Israeli pharma multinational, and Bristol Myers Squibb, its US rival, have been locking horns over the patents surrounding apixaban, a drug to treat dangerous blood clotting, the right to distribute a generic version in Ireland and the cost to the State in purchasing drugs. The dispute centres on patents for the blood thinning medication, which has multiple use cases including in after-care for transplants and for people susceptible to strokes. Bristol Myers Squibb sells the drug under…

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