WOCKHARDT SEEKS PARA IV FILING
Wockhardt has challenged the patent for the blockbuster epilepsy drug Dekapote. The patent is owned by Abbott Labs. The Chairman of the Wockhardt highlighted its business strategy in US will be to challenge patents. Wockhardt has made a fair number of Para IV filing. Wockhardt will not seek to invalidate the innovator’s patent; but will resort to prove that its products do not infringe the letters patent.
Obiter Dicta: Para IV filings means loopholes are found in the patent and a modified product is developed which does not infringe the patent itself. Litigation costs too much but if it is favourable to the party who has filed the first ANDA (Abbreviated New Drug Application). Hatch Waxman Act allows an exclusive marketing right for a period of 180 days on approval from FDA.
Ranbaxy has 20 first to file Para IV filings. Sun Pharma has made six Para IV filings; Glenmark Pharma has filed two patent challenges in the US. Zydus Cadila is also believed to have made some Para IV filings in the US.
BILCARE LOSES PATENT CASE OVER METALLIZED PVC FILM IN DELHI HC
Bilcare Limited, one of India's largest supplier of metallised PVC films used in pharmaceutical and food industry for packaging, has violated basic principle of patent law that “a product cannot be publicly released or worked prior to the filing of the patent application”. The applications for food and pharma have been known prior to the patent application of Bilcare itself and hence cannot be termed as invention in the metallized packaging film as claimed by it. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on Bilcare for concealing the fact that it was actually importing the product in question from Nan Ya Plastic Corporation, Taiwan and not the original inventor of the product as it had claimed.
RANBAXY WINS THE PATENT CASE AGAINST PFIZER
Ranbaxy won the patent case in Norway against Pfizer. Earlier Pfizer filed an infringement suit against Ranbaxy alleging that a product described in one of Ranbaxy's Abbreviated New Drug Applications infringed two of Pfizer's patents related to the prescription drug Lipitor and the District Court concluded that both patents were infringed. Drug lipid is used to reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels and it is one of the largest sold drugs through out the globe. The Norway court of appeal ruled that
1. Three Pfizer patents covering intermediate compounds used to make atorvastatin, the active ingredients in Liptor, would not be infringed by the sale of Ranbaxy generic product in Norway.
2. Pfizer's patent covering a process for converting crystalline atorvastatin calcium to an amorphous form is invalid. The patents expire between February 2009 and July 2016.
NOVARTIS UNHAPPY WITH INDIAN APPEAL BOARD
Novartis has objected to the composition of the appeal board set up to decide on the patentability of cancer-treating drug Glivec in India. S Chandrasekaran had been appointed to the two-man Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) to hear its appeal against a decision by the Indian Patent Office ,Chandrasekaran was Controller General of the Indian Patent Office at the time its patent application was rejected. It is challenging the rejection of a patent application for Glivec and is also claiming that section 3(d) of The Act, which defines what is not patentable, is not compatible with the TRIPs agreement.
LG SUES HITACHI
On June 18, 2007, LG filed the suit with a court in the Eastern District of Texas, seeking an injunction and compensation from Hitachi for infringing its patents related to plasma display panels. It is alleging infringement of seven patents. Earlier the two companies were trying to negotiate a deal to license each other's patents in 2005, but could not come to an agreement.
