Men of a certain need must spend more money for more years after a federal judge sided with drugmaker Pfizer as it tried to fend off a generic version of its erectile dysfunction drug Viagra in a patent-protection lawsuit.
The suit pitted Pfizer against Teva Pharmaceutical Industries. Pfizer is the global leader in pharmaceutical sales and Teva leads the pack in generic drugs, which now account for about 75 per cent of the market.
"This court finds that Teva has not shown by clear and convincing evidence" that the patent is invalid, according to the ruling made public yesterday by United States District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith.
Teva can appeal and Pfizer has similar suits pending against other generic manufacturers, which hope to start selling their versions when the original Viagra patent expires in March next year. If Pfizer prevails in those legal situations, Viagra will be protected from generic competition until 2019.
In years past Pfizer has settled contentious suits with other drugmakers, so Viagra is not the only erectile-dysfunction medicine on the market. A suit against Eli Lilly was eventually settled; Lilly sells Cialis for treatment of the same condition. In March last year Pfizer settled an eight-year suit with GlaxoSmithKline and Bayer, which had combined to sell Levitra.
