Pfizer Lost Moat
According to the patent law and precedent of each country, the applicant may have to make some adaptive modification for their patent application and documents. The local agencies which have local advantages should not merely translate the writing. Furthermore, the local agencies can combine with their own experience to give the applicant more appropriate advice and assistance to apply the claimable and defensible patents. Let’s encourage each other!
According to the Sinohealth statistics analysis, the atorvastatin which is an anticholesteremic pharmaceutical drug has annual sales of 8.319 billion CNY dollars in China during 2015. In China, Atorvastatin Calcium Tablets markets are mainly monopolized by American global pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer Inc. under the Brand name drug “Lipitor” and by Beijing Jialin pharmaceutical Co., Ltd under the generic name drug ” ALe”.
Pfizer sued Jialin for patent infringement in 2007, and then Jialin and third person- Zhang Chu argued that Pfizer’s patent is invalid. In 2015, China’s Supreme People’s Court made a final judgment on Pfizer’s patent through eight years of trial by three judicial sections. The court held that the Pfizer’s patent don’t have clear and complete description about how to prepare the atorvastatin hydrates and identify its water content and X-ray powder diffraction pattern. Therefore, the Pfizer’s patent don’t conform to the rule of PRC Patent Law Art. 24.3:『The description shall clearly and completely describe the invention or utility model so as to enable a person skilled in the relevant field of technology to carry it out』. For above reasons, the court ruled the invalidity of Pfizer’s patent（Crystalline Form I atorvastatin hydrates）in a patent infringement lawsuit. As a result, Pfizer can’t claim patent infringement and damages, Pfizer also lost the moat of this competitive market.
Writer ： Project Department, Patent Specialist, Win Wang