Patent Office Rejects Lipitor Patent on PUBPAT's Request: Public Interest Group's Review Results in All 44 Claims of Pfizer's Patent on Multi-Billion Dollar Drug Ruled Invalid
In the reexamination proceeding initiated late last year by the Public Patent Foundation ("PUBPAT"), the United States Patent and Trademark Office has rejected all of the claims of Pfizer Inc.'s patent on Lipitor, touted by the pharmaceutical giant as being "the best-selling treatment for lowering cholesterol and the best-selling pharmaceutical product of any kind in the world."
New York (PRWEB) June 22, 2005 -- In the reexamination proceeding initiated
late last year by the Public Patent Foundation ("PUBPAT"), the United States
Patent and Trademark Office has rejected all of the claims of Pfizer Inc.'s
patent on Lipitor, touted by the pharmaceutical giant as being "the best-selling
treatment for lowering cholesterol and the best-selling pharmaceutical product
of any kind in the world."
Relying on evidence provided by PUBPAT when
the reexamination was requested, the Patent Office rejected all 44 claims in the
pharmaceutical giant's patent. Pfizer has the opportunity to respond to the
Patent Office's rejection, but third party requests for reexamination, like the
one filed by PUBPAT, result in having the subject patent either modified or
completely revoked roughly 70% of the time.
Although the rejected patent
is one of five patents listed by Pfizer with the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) for atorvastatin, the generic name for the drug compound
distributed under the Lipitor brand, it is the only one asserted by Pfizer in
roughly two dozen patent infringement lawsuits filed last year against web sites
selling generic atorvastatin to Americans. Two of the other listed patents are
under review by a Delaware court and the remaining two have never been asserted
by Pfizer against any competitor to Lipitor.
"The Patent Office has
agreed with our conclusion that it should have never granted Pfizer the Lipitor
patent," said Dan Ravicher, PUBPAT's Executive Director. "Revoking Pfizer's
patent is a critical step towards providing American consumers with access to
atorvastatin at a fair price, which will not only provide substantial economic
benefit, but will also improve public health, as even Pfizer admits that many
Americans in need of the drug are not getting it."
More information about
the reexamination of Pfizer's Lipitor patent, including a copy of the Patent
Office's Office Action rejecting all of its claims, can be found at http://www.pubpat.org/Protecting.htm.
About
PUBPAT:
The Public Patent Foundation ("PUBPAT") is a not-for-profit legal
services organization working to protect the public from the harms caused by the
patent system, particularly the harms caused by wrongly issued patents and
unsound patent policy. PUBPAT provides the general public and those specific
persons or businesses otherwise deprived of access to the system governing
patents, with representation, advocacy, and education. To be kept informed of
PUBPAT News, subscribe to the PUBPAT News List by sending an email with
"subscribe" in the subject line to e-mail protected from spam
bots.
Contact:
Jill Ratkevic, Bite Communications
(415)
365-0482
e-mail protected from spam bots
# # #
Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/6/prweb254102.htm