Canadian Federal Court Upholds Viagra Patent

Pfizer Inc said today that the Canadian Federal Court in Toronto has ruled that Pfizer's second medical use patent covering Viagra would be infringed by Apotex' proposed generic product. The court granted the company's application for an order preventing Apotex from launching a generic version of Viagra until expiration of Canadian Patent No. 2,163,446 in 2014.

Pfizer To Assign E-Pedigrees To Viagra Bottles

Pfizer has licensed software from SupplyScape to assign and manage electronic pedigrees for Viagra and other drugs it manufacturers, SupplyScape announced Thursday. The deal indicates that Pfizer is starting to move beyond the early work it's done with RFID to authenticate packages of Viagra in the supply chain.

The license deal comes 15 months before a California law goes into effect requiring that manufacturers assign e-pedigrees for the drugs they produce so that drugs can be tracked from manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer, reducing opportunities for counterfeiting and theft. Other states are considering similar laws.

SupplyScape's E-Pedigree software creates an electronic pedigree, or record, for drugs and manages those records throughout the supply chain. Pfizer is expected to assign pedigrees at the item level for high-risk drugs (such as Viagra), while lower-risk drugs may receive e-pedigrees at the case level, said SupplyScape chairman Shabbir Dahod.

Pfizer already uses SupplyScape's RxAuthentication software, which lets pharmacies and wholesalers verify the authenticity of RFID-chipped Viagra packages. "This is an enlargement of our relationship with Pfizer; the relationship in the past was just about Viagra," Dahod said in an interview. A Pfizer spokesperson wasn't available for comment on Thursday.

Pfizer began shipping pallets, cases, and bottles of Viagra with RFID chips in December 2005 for authentication purposes to a limited number of distributors and pharmacies. It's unclear whether Pfizer will use RFID chips or bar codes for its e-pedigree deployment, or a mixture of both. Bar codes are considerably cheaper, yet they require line-of-sight reading; Dahod expects most manufacturers to use a mixture of RFID chips and bar codes to meet the California law, depending on the drug.

Pfizer (PFE) Not Up On Viagra

Pfizer (PFE) Not Up On Viagra

A Canadian court ruled that Apotex could not market a generic version of Viagra, Pfizer's (PFE) massively successful ED drug. Oddly, Pfizer's shares were down 1.2% to $24.35.

The Big Pharma company has watched its stock slide almost 15% as generic drugs continue to lay siege to sales of some of its most important drugs.

I Feel Castrated After Being Refused Viagra

I Feel Castrated After Being Refused Viagra

I WENT to my GP for Viagra but she said I wasn't suitable. It took a lot of courage for me to ask for this and to admit I was having problems in that department.

She made me feel like a naughty wee boy for asking. I'm only 59 but I feel like I've been castrated by a female doctor who looked about 20 and seems to think that sex stops when you are 30.

Can I demand to see a male doctor or must I spend a fortune on the internet to get my pills?

A I ACCEPT you are upset but I wonder if we have only got half the story here?

For instance, did your GP tell you exactly why she wasn't prescribing you Viagra? It isn't suitable for everyone for a variety of reasons, including long-standing health issues. It's got nothing to do with your age - or hers for that matter.

By all means seek a second opinion. But please don't buy drugs over the internet. As well as wasting your money it could seriously affect your health.