News

AstraZeneca Begins Court Fight Over Crestor® Patent

Reuters
February 22, 2010

Related Professionals: Lipsey, Charles E.

Media Mention

AstraZeneca is fighting to protect its biggest-selling drug, Crestor®, against generic competition. Crestor® is one of a group of heart drugs known as "statins" used to cut "bad" LDL cholesterol. Charles Lipsey, a partner at Finnegan who is representing AstraZeneca, commented that, "This drug has turned out to be quite remarkable. It's the most efficacious statin on the market in reducing bad cholesterol." Generic drugmakers filed drug applications in 2007, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration lifted its protection on Crestor®, to begin making their own versions. But before they can proceed with manufacturing, generic drug makers must prove that Crestor'® patent is invalid: they are arguing that the patent was fraudulently obtained in the early 1990s by office workers at the Japanese company that invented Crestor® drug. Lipsey said AstraZeneca's competitors have a lot to prove during the scheduled 10-day trial, but noted that they had "chosen to attack the people, not the patent itself." He explained that the behavior of the office workers was really the result of internal disarray, rather than intentional fraud. Lipsey added that the only way Crestor® could be linked to a similar compound patented by one of AstraZeneca's competitors was "hindsight."