The Federal Court of Canada has reversed a lower court order that had earlier held that Pfizer could not bar Ranbaxy from obtaining approval for manufacturing a generic version of Lipitor the cholesterol lowering drug. The appellate court has issued an order prohibiting regulatory approval of Ranbaxy’s product in Canada until Pfizer’s enantiomer (calcium salt form of Lipitor) patent-Canadian Patent No. 2,021,546 “(refer Spicyip post) on the blockbuster drug expires in November 2011.
Ranbaxy is likely to seek to review of this decision at the Supreme Court of Canada
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Dear Aysha,
The present ‘546 patent is for the enantiomer/ Ca salt form of Atorvastatin.
Ranbaxy had earlier won the case for this at the first level in Canada.
Ranbaxy had lost the Canada case for the basic patent.
Ranbaxy had also lost another case in Canada for the crystal form patent.
Read this for details:
http://genericpharmaceuticals.blogspot.com/2008/03/canada-good-news-for-pfizer-lipitor.html
I think the Netherland’s decision was related to basic patent and hence is not necessarily relatable to the present set back to Ranbaxy for the Ca salt form patent.
Regards,