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ShareMUMBAI: The dream of India's largest pharma company, Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, to partake of the revenue pie of Lipitor, the world's largest-selling drug, has suffered another setback as the district court of The Hague in the Netherlands has ruled that the basic patent covering atorvastatin -the active ingredient in Lipitor - would be infringed by the competitor product from Ranbaxy.
The decision, which is subject to appeal, prevents Ranbaxy from launching its drug before Lipitor's basic patent expires in November 2011.
A Ranbaxy spokesperson said it was evaluating the decision and would decide on its course of action shortly.
However, the court ruled in favour of Ranbaxy in its challenge of the second patent covering the calcium salt of atorvastatin. It ruled that the patent, which expires in July 2010, is invalid.
A Pfizer statement said that while it plans to appeal the ruling, it will have no practical effect on the patent life of Lipitor in the Netherlands because the basic patent will remain in effect beyond the expiration of the calcium salt patent.
Ranbaxy, aiming to launch a generic version of the cholesterol-lowering drug, has challenged Pfizer's patents on Lipitor in 17 markets, including the US, the UK, Austria, Finland, Italy, Belgium and Germany.
Last month, it received favourable ruling in two of the four patent challenges filed by it against Pfizer in Norway. The City Court in Oslo sided with the Indian drug maker by finding non-infringement of two of Pfizer's Norwegian patents (No 177,566 and No. 180,199), covering intermediate compounds of Lipitor.
In 2005, Lipitor fetched revenue of $50 million in Norway, while its global revenue was $12 billion.
