AlQa'dah 2, 1432, Sep 30, 2011, SPA -- AstraZeneca has kicked away a short-term threat of generic competition to its anti-pyschotic drug Seroquel XR in the U.S. market, underpinning prospects for a key product as times get tougher for the group, Reuters reported. Shares in Britain's second-biggest drugmaker were up 0.8 percent by 0715 GMT on Friday, bucking a weaker market, on news it had reached a patent settlement with Handa Pharmaceuticals, keeping the company from selling a generic form of Seroquel XR until late 2016. Because privately held Handa was the first generics company to file for approval to market a copy of the extended-release medicine, the deal could lock other makers of generics out of the U.S. market until Handa launches. -- SPA
