NEW YORK, Jan. 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The federal district court
in the Eastern District of Virginia (Alexandria) has ruled that Synthon IP
obtained, by inequitable conduct, two U.S. patents alleged to cover a
process and an intermediate compound used to make the active ingredient in
Pfizer's widely-prescribed hypertension medication, Norvasc, Pfizer said
today.
Pfizer said the court found that Synthon had knowingly failed to
disclose to the U.S. Patent Office Pfizer publications and other
information it had in its possession that described the process Synthon
sought to patent. "It's very difficult to meet the standards for
establishing inequitable conduct," said Allen Waxman, Pfizer's general
counsel. "But in this case it is clear that Synthon improperly used
Pfizer's own published material to obtain a patent that it then tried to
enforce against us."
Pfizer said it intends to seek attorneys' fees from Synthon. The case
may be appealed.
Synthon had asserted that Pfizer's process for manufacturing Norvasc --
a process Pfizer had not only published but has been using for 15 years --
infringed Synthon patents issued in 2003 and 2005. In August of last year,
a jury unanimously ruled that one of those patents was not infringed by
Pfizer and was invalid on multiple grounds, principally because it was
based on Pfizer's prior published work. Synthon had dropped its claim of
infringement on the second patent prior to trial.
SOURCE Pfizer Inc
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