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That patent expires in March 2010. Pfizer now plans to seek correction of a technical defect in a second patent covering the calcium salt of atorvastatin. The second patent, which will expire in June 2011, was ruled invalid by the court on technical grounds.

Peter Richardson, Pfizer's senior vice president and associate general counsel, stated, "The court has declined to further review the August 2 decision. As we noted in our response to the rehearing petition, the issues in this case were straightforward, the lower court's decision was consistent with prior law, and it raised no matters of exceptional importance requiring that they be revisited again." The company noted that Ranbaxy might seek review of the Court of Appeals decision by the U.

S. Supreme Court. On August 2, Pfizer announced that a panel of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has upheld the exclusivity of the main patent covering atorvastatin, the active ingredient in Lipitor, maintaining patent protection for Lipitor in the U.

S. until March 2010. However, the court reversed the decision on another patent, which may bring cheaper versions of the cholesterol-lowering agent to the market a year earlier than expected.

The New York-based Pfizer stated that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed the decision of the lower court by finding that Indian generic company Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd.

did not infringe on a patent, which would have extended Lipitor's patent life through June 2011. The appeals court upheld the decision on another patent, which protects Lipitor through March 2010. Last month, Ranbaxy revealed that a Norwegian court handed down a favourable decision for Ranbaxy in its case against Pfizer ( | | | ), involving two patents on atorvastatin in Norway.

Atorvastatin is a cholesterol-lowering drug which is marketed by Pfizer as Lipitor. The company stated that the Oslo City Court sided with Ranbaxy by finding non-infringement of two of Pfizer's Norwegian patents covering particular intermediate compounds. Earlier in November 2005, the Norwegian Court had found Ranbaxy's atorvastatin product not to infringe one of Pfizer's process patents but to infringe another of Pfizer's patents covering a particular intermediate compound.

Pfizer is currently trading at $27.63, down 5 cents.