Pfizer's atorvastatin patents invalid: Spanish Court

Pharmaceutical company Ranbaxy today said a Spanish court has favoured its stand in the atorvastatin patents case and has invalidated Pfizer's patents on the drug.

According to a statement posted on the company's website, the Mercantile Court of Barcelona had sought an advisory opinion on Spanish atorvastatin patents from the European Patents Office, wherein EPO had found them to be valid.

However, Since Spanish patents can only be validated or invalidated by the country's courts, EPO's advisory opinion was not constituted as a legal judgement, the statement said.

"The Mercantile Court of Barcelona found Spanish patent ES 2,167,306 (counterpart of Pfizer's EP 409 281) to be invalid for lack of novelty. The two rulings made on September 26 in Lek Pharmaceuticals v/s Warner Lambert Co and in Laboratorios Cinfa et al. V/s Warner Lambert, found claims 1 to 3 of Pfizer to be invalid," the statement said.

The court gave its decision after considering the views of the Spanish Patent Office (SPO) and technical expert reports, it said.