Jamaican generic companies to face Pfizer in Supreme Court

Two Jamaican generic companies, Lasco Distributors Limited and Medimpex Jamaica Limited, will go to the Supreme Court of Jamaica against Pfizer today for a damages hearing in a case that saw them being prevented from selling a generic drug.

The drug involved in the case is Norvasc (amlodipine), a treatment for hypertension.

As reported by Jamaican news publication The Gleaner, Lasco has asked the court to award it $311 million in damages. Pfizer, however, argues that the company should be paid $518,000 at most.

Medimpex has asked the court for it to be paid $11.5 million, while Pfizer demands that the generic company should not get paid more than $68,000.

The dispute is an outcome of an injunction granted to Pfizer in 2005 after it filed a complaint of patent infringement against the local generic companies in the Jamaican Supreme Court. Pfizer claimed that the companies sold drugs that included amlodipine.

Medimpex and Lasco questioned the validity of the patent.

The complaint was also filed against NMF Pharmaceuticals Limited but it did not challenge the claims.

After the injunction was granted against the generic companies, the Supreme Court overturned the injunction in 2009 and ordered an enquiry into the damages suffered by the companies as a result of the injunction.