Chinese drug companies that want to cash in on the lucrative Viagra market are pursuing what they hope is a way to make copies legally: Ask authorities to nullify the Chinese patent on the anti-impotence medication.
Twelve companies are challenging Pfizer Inc's exclusive rights to the little blue pill in China, a potentially huge market where men have for centuries sought drugs to boost sexual performance.
Pfizer says the outcome of the decision by China's patent examiners will be "very significant" for drug manufacturers everywhere.
A ruling to uphold the patent "would be a sign that the China has a system in place to protect research-based innovative pharmaceutical products," Pfizer said Thursday in a statement to AP.
The challenge was filed last year, and a two-day hearing took place in September. Patent examiners won't say when a decision will be made.
If Pfizer's patent is revoked, Chinese companies would no longer have to pay the New York-based company for the right to use the formula.
But China, long a haven for product piracy, has pledged to increase protection for patents and other intellectual property as part of its new membership in the WTO.
Pfizer, the world's largest maker of prescription drugs, said foreign investors are watching such cases to see how China honors its WTO commitments.
"Patent protection is a very important part of this investment evaluation," said its statement.
Pang Tiejun, one of five examiners hearing the case for China's State Intellectual Property Office, said she was not allowed to comment on the arguments before a decision was made.
One challenger, Tianjin Lianxiang Pharmaceutical Co, argues that Pfizer's patent is invalid because its drug doesn't meet the Chinese legal requirement to be a truly new invention.
Viagra is "evolved from a medicine for heart disease and high blood pressure," said Wang Naiwu, deputy general manager of the company in Tianjin, a port city east of Beijing.
Wang said his company expects to win regulatory approval soon for its own anti-impotence drug -- but can't market it unless the Viagra patent is revoked.
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