BOSTON – Stop "generic" Viagra at least until October 2019. Pfizer won the appeal presented before an American court against the US headquarters of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries which was preparing to launch a product similar to Viagra on the market, against male impotence, for the treatment of erectile dysfunction. On August 12, Judge Rebecca Beach Smith of the District Court in Norfolk, Virginia, dismissed Teva's motion to argue that Pfizer's exclusive license was invalid.
In a 110-page order, the judge found Teva's reasons to be inexistent or in any case not sufficiently motivated. Correspondingly, the pharmaceutical company's stock lost more than 3 percent on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange
The Israeli Teva is one of the 15 largest pharmaceutical companies in the world with 42,000 employees and sales of 16 billion dollars recorded in the last balance sheet and concentrated on the European and North American markets. Above all, as a leading company in the production of generic drugs, it could not keep away from a product like Viagra and its market (we are talking about 16 million "users" worldwide). The court, however, for now agreed with Pfizer, considering its patent protection action legitimate.
The news of the verdict was given by Pfizer itself which added that other appeals are still pending against initiatives similar to that of Teva, started by other pharmaceutical companies of "generics". In May, Pfizer said Viagra sales rose 5.5% to $479 million in the first four months of the year.
(August 15, 2011)
