[Pharm-policy] Pfizer loses Viagra patent in the UK

[James Love]

Subject: PATNEWS: Pfizer loses Viagra patent in the UK
   Date: Wed, 8 Nov 2000 10:21:34 -0500 (EST)
   From:  Gregory Aharonian <srctran@world.std.com>
     To:  patent-news@world.std.com

!20001108   Pfizer loses Viagra patent in the UK

    Somewhat apropos to a presidential election in which patented drug
costs was an issue, and for a drug that a former presidential nominee
was helping to market, the BBC reports that Pfizer's Viagra patent has
been ruled invalid by the London courts.

    In a case brought by Pfizer's US competitors Eli Lilly and Icos
    Corporation, the High Court in London ruled that the 1993 patent
    on the main ingredient of the drug was invalid. Other firms can
    now cash in.

    The judge said the knowledge on which it was based had already
    been in the public domain and that the patent was stifling research
    by other companies.  Speaking about the active compound involved,
    the judge said: "I have come to the view this was not an unexpected
    discovery. On the contrary, it is just what papers written on the
    subject beforehand would have led those engaged in the field to
    expect." 

    Drugs makers Eli Lilly and Icos Corporation are trying to produce
    an impotency drug of their own. 


Greg Aharonian
Internet Patent News Service


-- 
James Love  mailto:love@cptech.org http://www.cptech.org
Consumer Project on Technology, P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
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