Canadian court favours Ranbaxy in Lipitor case

Ranbaxy Laboratories, in a release issued to the BSE today, said Justice Snider of the Federal Court of Canada has dismissed Pfizer's application to deny issuance of a Notice of Compliance (NoC) as regards 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 marketed by Pfizer as Lipitor.

The release added that 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).

"The company will appeal this decision and remains confident in its position. The company was successful in Norway on a similar issue regarding extra-territorial coverage of a patent, other than a process patent, outside of the country in which the patent is issued," the release added.