U.S. COURT REFUSES RANBAXY'S PETITION TO REHEAR LIPITOR PATENT CASE

A U.S. appeals court has denied Ranbaxy's petition to rehear its August decision in a patent case involving atorvastatin, the active ingredient in Lipitor, according to Pfizer.

On Aug. 2, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the exclusivity of Pfizer's main patent on its cholesterol-lowering drug, which expires in March 2010. Ranbaxy asked to court to reconsider, although Pfizer Senior Vice President Peter Richardson said that the case issues were "straightforward" and "raised no matters of exceptional importance requiring that they be revisited again."

The appeals court deemed a second patent, covering the calcium salt in atorvastatin, invalid on technical grounds. Pfizer said it would go the U.S. Patent Office and fix a technical defect in the patent, which is due to expire June 2011.

Ranbaxy may ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Court of Appeals' decision, Pfizer noted.

Lipitor is the most prescribed drug in the world and has been used by more than 18 million people in the U.S. since 1997, according to Pfizer.