The win for Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi-Aventis was hardly surprising. After US District Court Judge Sidney Stein issued his injunction last year, preventing Apotex from selling anymore generic Plavix, virtually everyone took it as a signal that the big drugmakers would prevail and successfully defend the patent.

In his ruling, the judge said Sanofi-Aventis “has shown that it is likely to suffer irreparable price erosion, loss of goodwill, and a negative impact on the amount of research devoted to developing other medical uses for Plavix.” He also permanently barred Apotex from any activity that infringes the patent, effectively prohibiting generic Plavix sales, although Apotex will appeal.

The decision follows a recent guilty plea and a $1 million fine Bristol-Myers paid to settle a Justice Department probe. The drugmaker admitted to two counts of making false statements to the Federal Trade Commission about its Plavix deal with Apotex, which blew up and led Bristol-Myers ceo Pete Dolan to resign.

So now, in just one week, Bristol-Myers has gotten off probation for a 2005 accounting scandal and the rights to Plavix are secure. Meanwhile, Sanofi is reeling from last week’s decision by an FDA advisory panel not to recommend the Acomplia diet drug for approval. Just how feverish will merger speculation grow? Or is this spate of news anti-climatic?