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news.A US appeals court has ruled in Pfizer's favor in a lawsuit by generic manufacturer Teva Pharmaceuticals, challenging the patent for the antidepressant Zoloft.
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In its decision, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld an earlier ruling in Pfizer’s favor by the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Teva filed the action seeking a declaratory judgment of non-infringement or invalidity of Pfizer’s US patent covering a crystalline form of sertraline, the active ingredient in Zoloft. In that ruling in December 2003, Judge Richard Stearns dismissed Teva’s lawsuit, finding that Pfizer had not accused Teva of infringing its Zoloft patent and Teva had no reasonable basis to expect Pfizer would do so.
“Pfizer is pleased with today’s decision by the Court of Appeals to maintain its longstanding approach to these kinds of suits,” said Jeff Kindler, Pfizer’s executive vice president and general counsel. “This is an important decision both for Pfizer and our innovation-based industry.”