Pfizer says Canadian court blocks generic Celebrex

Last Updated: 2007-05-01 10:00:22 -0400 (Reuters Health)

By Ransdell Pierson

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc. said on Monday the Federal Court of Appeal of Canada has blocked generic drugmakerTeva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. from launching a copycat form of its Celebrex arthritis drug in the country until 2014.

Pfizer said the court, in its ruling, reversed a lower court ruling that would have permitted Teva's Novopharm affiliate to launch its form of Celebrex in Canada.

The patent concerned the chemical composition of Celebrex, Pfizer spokesman Bryant Haskins said.

Celebrex had global first-quarter sales of $598 million, making it one of Pfizer's top products. The world's largest drugmaker declined to provide Canadian sales of the medicine, saying it generally does not break out revenue from its drugs in individual overseas markets.

Haskins said government agency Health Canada earlier indicated that, on Tuesday, it would "de-list," meaning invalidate, a separate patent protecting Celebrex. That patent concerns how Celebrex is used, Haskins said.

"But with today's court decision, Celebrex will be protected in Canada until 2014 no matter what Health Canada does," Haskins said.

A spokesman for Israel-based Teva declined to comment.

Pfizer in December won an important round in another patent battle with Teva, when a Canadian federal court prevented the Novopharm affiliate from launching a generic version of Pfizer's Lipitor cholesterol fighter until a patent expires in July 2010.

Teva, the world's biggest maker of generic medicines, has appealed the Lipitor decision -- which had been rendered by the Canadian Federal Court in Toronto.

Far more is at stake in the Lipitor patent battle because the cholesterol drug -- with annual sales of about $13 billion -- is a far bigger product than Celebrex.