Pfizer wins Viagra IP case in China

Global drugs giant Pfizer has won a rare reversal of a Chinese patent review board's decision, which means that generic manufacturers of the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra (sildenafil citrate) are now considered in violation of the patent rights of the USA-based company. Most appeals by foreign firms are unsuccessful.

An earlier ruling in July 2004 had allowed more than a dozen local firms to manufacture copies of Viagra with impunity. Six months after the drug's launch in China, in 2000, government estimates suggested that 90% of the market was supplied by unauthorized companies.

Pfizer's appeal was decided by the Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Court, which determined that the Viagra patent was valid after all. The Weige Alliance, a consortium of local generic manufacturers, has indicated that it may appeal the ruling, which some observers consider to have been politically motivated. The Chinese government is in the midst of series of domestic campaigns to clamp down on counterfeit goods, including drugs (Marketletters passim), and it is also anxious to improve its track record with the outside world on intellectual property rights.