December 20, 2011 by Lena Vartanian
Lena Vartanian is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School and is enrolled in Professor Mgbeoji’s Patents class in Fall 2011. As part of the course requirements, students are asked to write a blog on a topic of their choice.
On October 11, 2011, Apotex Inc. announced its latest successful patent challenge, resulting in the removal of an Order of Prohibition for the production and sale of a generic alternative to Xalatan®, in the Canadian market. After the ruling of the Federal Court of Appeal (FCA), Apo-Latanoprost was released to the Canadian market on October 3, 2011, nearly three years prior to the expiry of the patent held by Pfizer Canada Inc. and Atkiebolag (together known as Pfizer). Although, this decision was clearly a victory for Apotex, Apotex held that the real winner was the Healthcare system, stating in its press release that the “savings to the Healthcare system will be approximately $30 million which the provinces can then reinvest into critical areas of healthcare.” Jack Kay, Apotex president stated,
We are proud that our legal victory and launch will deliver needed savings to the healthcare system…It’s only through the support of pharmacy as well as the public and private drug plans, that Apotex can continue to take on patent challenges to deliver cost saving medications to market sooner.
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