Teva says no immediate plans to re-ship Protonix

NEW YORK, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (TEVA.O: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Friday it has not reintroduced its generic form of Wyeth's (WYE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Protonix heartburn drug and has no immediate plans to resume additional shipments of its copycat medicine.

Teva shipped supplies of its generic to U.S. distributors, after introducing the product on Dec. 21.

On Dec. 24, Israel's Teva agreed to discontinue further shipments of its generic under a so-called standstill agreement with Wyeth that was later extended until Jan. 31. The agreement gave the companies time to assess a possible settlement of their patent litigation.

Wyeth on Tuesday, however, said it had launched its own U.S. generic form of Protonix in response to the brief launch by Teva of its generic. India's Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries (SUN.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) then announced it had also launched its own generic in the United States. (Reporting by Ransdell Pierson; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)