Glaxo seeks stay on court ruling Sunday, July 05, 2009 By Kieron Wood The Glaxo pharmaceutical group will this week seek a stay on a High Court ruling scrapping its patent on one of the world’s best-selling drugs.
The company’s patent for asthma drug Seretide which is known in the US as Advair was challenged by Ivax Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries.
The drug had worldwide sales of €4.8 billion last year, including sales of €1.6 billion in Europe. Glaxo’s patent, entitled ‘‘inhalation medicaments for treating respiratory disorders’’, was filed in September 1990.
However, Ivax argued that the linking of two chemicals, fluticasone propionate and salmeterol, was not a novel combination of the two compounds.
In a High Court judgment on June 26, Mr Justice Peter Charleton disallowed the patent.
‘‘The crucial matter in this case is the question of obviousness,” said Charleton. ‘‘Patent protection is not available in respect of a part of the state-of-the-art, or what is obvious in consequence of it. This development would have been obvious to a person skilled in the art.”
He said the ‘‘claimed inventive step would have been obvious to the skilled team’’.
Following the judgment, counsel for Glaxo said he would be seeking a stay on the ruling. That application will be heard in the High Court on Thursday. Glaxo has more than 1,600 staff in Ireland, with operations in Dublin, Cork and Waterford. Teva has three pharmaceutical plants and a research and development facility in Waterford.
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