Pfizer has been busy in the last few years protecting its Viagra patent

Good news for the world’s biggest pharmaceutical company namely Pfizer who have just won a court case in Canada which means that the company Apotex will be forbidden from manufacturing or selling a generic type of the world famous Viagra erectile dysfunction medication until the Pfizer patent runs out in the year 2014. The Federal Court judge in Canada said that the generic Viagra drug that Apotex wanted to produce would definitely have infringed on the Pfizer patent, however a spokesman for Apotex strongly disagreed and said that they would be appealing the ruling as soon as they could.

Pfizer has been extremely busy in the last few years protecting its Viagra patent as well as stepping up efforts to stop the illegal manufacture of fake versions of Viagra. Viagra is one of the most copied pharmaceutical drugs in the world today and fake Viagra seriously harms the profits of Pfizer. Sales of Viagra around the world have fallen over the last four years and this is not only because of competition from the other erectile dysfunction medications Cialis Levitra, but also because of the increasing sophistication of the fake drug manufacturers in passing their products off as the real thing.

It is interesting to observe that the boss of Pfizer is a lawyer by profession and the company invests millions of pounds every year protecting their intellectual copyrights and patents from companies that seek to exploit them. Pfizer took the decision to step up their patent protection a few years ago and claim that this decision has been financially rewarding.

Part of the problem that Pfizer have is that the Viagra brand name is so powerful that it is a perfect drug for a criminal to copy as everybody has heard of it. Fake versions of the other erectile dysfunction drugs Cialis and Levitra are not so popular as they are not household names in the same way that Viagra is.