Monday 29 December 2008

Another Lipitor dispute looms large

The Financial Post reports that pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. is accusing leading Canadian generics company Apotex of infringing its US patent for best-selling cholesterol drug Lipitor. Apotex has applied to the US Food and Drug Administration for permission to import and sell four dosage strengths of the drug; Pfizer says this infringes its 1993-issued patent 5,273,995 (the enantiomer patent), which is not set to expire till 2011, the New York-based company said in court papers. Pfizer also seeks legal fees, costs and expenses for the lawsuit.

According to Duncan Bucknell's IP ThinkTank scorecard, Pfizer has litigated Lipitor patents in 24 jurisdictions, mainly in vigorously-contested validity proceedings involving Indian pharma company Ranbaxy.

No comments: