Unilab to challenge more Pfizer patents

Generic drug maker United Laboratories, Inc. (Unilab) will challenge two other patents held by multinational pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, Inc. after getting a favorable court ruling in a related case, a company executive said on Monday. Unilab plans to ask authorities to junk Pfizer’s patent on the "crystalline" variant of an anti-cholesterol drug after raising objections to the multinational’s patent on the "amorphous" variant, Jose Maria A. Ochave, vice-president for legal services, told reporters. Next year, it will seek the cancellation of Pfizer’s patent on a drug to manage epilepsy, Ochave said. Unilab’s statements come on the heels of a Makati court ruling last week allowing Unilab to continue selling its own version of Pfizer’s atorvastatin calcium drug Lipitor, even as a patent infringement case is ongoing. The court took note of Pfizer witnesses’ admissions that the disputed patent was similar to one that had already expired. "We’ve filed these admissions with the Intellectual Property Office (IPO). We will file now a petition... within the year... to cancel not just the amorphous [variant] but also the crystalline patent," Ochave said. "Commercializing the amorphous drug is more expensive," he said, noting that Unilab’s generic version Avamax uses raw materials that are 50 percent costlier than those used to make the crystalline variant. "This means we can go into crystalline [production] later on and bring prices further down," he said. Pfizer has the exclusive right to retail the crystalline version until 2019. Unilab will also be going after Pfizer’s patent on pregabalin, which controls epileptic seizures, Ochave said. This patent expires in 2019 as well. "We will launch [a generic version] as well and challenge the patent next year. They have a patent just on the method of use, how it is to be taken" he said, noting that "inventive step" is not recognized by the recently passed Republic Act 9502 or the Cheaper Medicines Act. Under the law, patents will only be granted to firms that are able to improve a substance’s ability to produce desired effects. Sought for comment, Pfizer said the law allows firms to challenge patents but exclusive rights to retail drugs must be respected while court decisions are pending. "The law allows Unilab the freedom to challenge the patents. But unless a decision is made that our patents are not valid, it is enforced," Pfizer Spokesman Patricia J. Pascual said in a telephone interview. "We need to reiterate, for instance, that no decision has been made about Lipitor either at the IPO or the Makati Regional Trial Court," Pascual said. But Unilab said it would continue securing support from drug stores to distribute Avamax. It has yet to get drug chain Mercury Drug to carry its generic drug. Ochave said Unilab would be launching a generic version of Pfizer’s antibiotic Zithromax next month. The Unilab version of the azithromycin pill, branded as Zenith, is a "monohydrate" and thus different from Pfizer’s patented "dihydrate" version, Ochave claimed. — Jessica Anne D. Hermosa, BusinessWorld