Earlier this month, global pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, lost its legal monopoly rights on Viagra in Canada. The Canadian Supreme Court made a unanimous decision on the matter saying that the company should have its patent taken away. On behalf of the court, Justice Louis LeBel wrote “As a matter of policy and sound interpretation, patentees cannot be allowed to ‘game’ the system in this way.” The issue that Pfizer ran into was the fact that the Viagra patent failed to meet the full disclosure requirements set by Canada’s Patent Act. In order to have monopoly rights, the company must disclose the invention and explain how it works. Unfortunately for Pfizer, rather than explaining that the compound sildenafil citrate is the vital component for the treatment of erectile dysfunction, their patent stated that one of the components of Viagra provided the treatment and never actually specified the exact compound.
So what does this mean for Pfizer? Without the patent rights to Viagra, the company is no longer allowed to have a legal monopoly of the product in Canada. This means that Pfizer has essentially lost all its exclusive control over the supply of Viagra in the country. Does this mean that Canadian men with erectile dysfunction are going be screwed over? No. All this means is that other companies, such as the Israel-based Teva Pharmaceuticals, who actually filed the suit against Pfizer, are allowed to market their versions of Viagra now, rather than after the expiry of Pfizer’s patent which was due in 2014. Analysts believe that this will cause Pfizer to lose all of its $80 million dollar revenue it makes from Canada alone. This is because the generic versions of Viagra, being produced by companies like Teva Pharmaceuticals, are predicted to be much cheaper. Fortunately for the company, though this is a hefty profit loss, it is only a small amount from the $2 billion it makes globally from Viagra alone.
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