Pfizer Inc. won a patent-infringement case that prevents Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. from marketing a generic version of the impotence drug Viagra until 2019.
U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith in Norfolk, Va., ruled Friday against Petach Tikva, Israel-based Teva, which claimed the patent wasn’t valid and couldn’t be enforced.
“Teva has not shown by clear and convincing evidence that the patent is invalid,” Smith said in a 110-page opinion. In addition, “there is utterly no evidence” to support Teva’s claim that Pfizer intentionally withheld documents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Smith wrote.
Viagra sales increased 5.5 percent, to $479 million, in the first quarter, Pfizer said in May. New York-based Pfizer, the world’s biggest drugmaker, posted net income of $8.26 billion last year on sales of $67.8 billion.
“Protecting the intellectual property rights of our innovative core is critical,” Amy Schulman, Pfizer’s general counsel, said in a statement. Bloomberg News
