CANADIAN FEDERAL COURT FAVOURS RANBAXY
DISMISSES PFIZER'S APPLICATION ON ATORVASTATIN PATENT CA 2,220,455
Gurgaon, Haryana, India, Princeton, New Jersey, USA - September 13, 2007
Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited announced that the The Honorable Justice Snider of the Federal Court of Canada, dismissed Pfizer's application to deny issuance of a Notice of Compliance (NoC) as regards to Pfizer's Atorvastatin patent CA 2,220,455, finding that Pfizer failed to meet its burden of showing that Ranbaxy's allegation of invalidity is not justified. Atorvastatin is a cholesterol-lowering drug which is marketed by Pfizer as Lipitor®.
The Minister of Health Canada was ordered not to issue a NoC until the expiry of the other contested Pfizer Patent (CA 2,220,018). Ranbaxy will appeal this decision and remains confident in its position. In particular, Ranbaxy was successful in Norway on a similar issue regarding extraterritorial coverage of a patent, other than a process patent, outside of the country in which the patent is issued.
Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited, India's largest pharmaceutical company, is an integrated, research based, international pharmaceutical company producing a wide range of quality, affordable generic medicines, trusted by healthcare professionals and patients across geographies. Ranbaxy’s continued focus on R&D has resulted in several approvals in developed markets and significant progress in New Drug Discovery Research. The Company’s foray into Novel Drug Delivery Systems has led to proprietary "platform technologies," resulting in a number of products under development. The Company is serving its customers in over 125 countries and has an expanding international portfolio of affiliates, joint ventures and alliances, ground operations in 49 countries and manufacturing operations in 11 countries