Wyeth is due back in court this week as part of a six-year legal battle over claims it illegally exported waste from Ireland to Europe, The Sunday Business Post reports. Wyeth Medica Ireland, which operates a plant in Newbridge in Kildare, has been charged with 18 offenses over exporting waste from the manufacturing of a contraceptive drug. The drugmaker last year sought a judicial review of some aspects of the proceedings, which has been listed to go ahead in the High Court on Tuesday, March 11.

The case originated in 2002 when some Dutch pig farmers noticed their sows were infertile. The infertility was attributed to animal feed that had been made from reprocessed waste water from the Wyeth plant at Newbridge in Kildare, according to the paper. Cara Environmental Technology, which processed the waste for Wyeth, is facing charges over the same issues.

The accounts refer to the charges facing the Irish facility. ‘‘In November 2006,WMIwas served with criminal summonses charging WMI with 18 violations of the Waste Management Act and its integrated pollution control licence in connection with five specifically identified shipments of MPA-contaminated water waste from its Newbridge, Ireland facility. WMI believes it has meritorious defences to these summonses and intends to vigorously defend itself in these proceedings,” according to documents filed with the Companies Registration Office, the paper writes.