In a 7-0 decision, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Thursday that Pfizer’s patent on Viagra (sildenafil) is invalid following a legal challenge by Teva. Pfizer said it expects the erectile dysfunction drug “to face generic competition in Canada shortly,” adding that it was disappointed with the decision.
Teva first challenged the patent in 2007, arguing that Pfizer did not disclose Viagra’s active ingredient among a large number of compounds listed in the patent. However, a lower court issued a decision in 2009, upholding Pfizer’s patent, which was originally scheduled to expire in 2014. In the latest ruling, the Supreme Court determined that “Pfizer had the information needed to disclose the useful compound and chose not to release it. Even though Pfizer knew that the effective compound was sildenafil at the time it filed the application, it limited its description.”
“Pfizer gained a benefit from the act — exclusive monopoly rights — while withholding disclosure,” Justice Louis LeBel noted, adding that “as a matter of policy and sound statutory interpretation, patentees cannot be allowed to ‘game’ the system in this way. This, in my view, is the key issue in this appeal.” The court’s decision will apply to any patent application in Canada.
A U.S. court ruled last year that Teva could not launch a generic version of Viagra in the country until 2019.
