CANADIAN COURT BLOCKS GENERIC LIPITOR

Generic drugmaker Novopharm, a subsidiary of Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical, will have to wait at least three years before it can grab a piece of the multibillion-dollar Lipitor market, a court has ruled.

The Canadian Federal Court in Toronto granted a request by Pfizer, Lipitor's (atorvastatin calcium) patent holder, seeking a court order to prevent Novopharm from marketing a generic form of Lipitor prior to its patent expiration, the company said.

Allen Waxman, general counsel for Pfizer, said the company will "continue to vigorously defend its intellectual property rights wherever they are challenged."

The decision is subject to appeal. Representatives at Novopharm's offices in Toronto did not return messages asking if the company plans to exercise that option.

The ruling is the latest win in a number of legal victories for the pharmaceutical giant involving Lipitor. An October opinion from the European Patent Office quashed Ranbaxy's arguments made in a Spanish court charging that Pfizer's patents were invalid because of "lack of novelty" and "lack of an inventive step." In August, a U.S. appeals court also sided with Pfizer when it denied a petition filed by Ranbaxy asking the court to rehear a patent case involving the active ingredient in Lipitor.