In what seems to be a year with mixed fortunes for Pfizer so far, the ruling against the company by US Court of Appeals for Federal Circuit in its suit involving Teva Pharmaceuticals is the latest setback. Pfizer had 4 patents on Celebrex (celecoxib), its blockbuster arthritis drug- 5466823, 5563165, 5760068 and 5972986. According to the Orange Book Blog, the Court invalidated 5760068 on grounds of double patenting in view of 5563165;’068 still had one and a half years left before expiry. Yet Pfizer’s press release is anything but pessimistic:
“Pfizer Wins Challenge to Two Main
The primary issue was applicability of 35 U.S.C 121 to continuation-in-part (CIP) applications and the Court,on the basis of case laws and legislative history, ruled that it applied only to divisional applications. Pfizer’s argument was that CIP and divisional applications were merely labels used for “administrative convenience” (i believe this interpretation is not entirely accurate) and in their case, though the ‘068 patent is termed a CIP, it should be considered a divisional patent.
