Pfizer wins Synthon jury trial over Norvasc drug

Pfizer Inc., the world's biggest drugmaker, said it won a jury finding that its Norvasc hypertension drug doesn't infringe a patent owned by Synthon BV. A federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia, also found that Synthon's patent was invalid, Pfizer said in a statement. Synthon, a closely held Dutch drugmaker, claimed Norvasc was made with a process covered by a patent issued in 2003. Pfizer said it had been using the process for making amlodipine, the chemical name for Norvasc, for 15 years. Norvasc is Pfizer's second best selling drug behind the cholesterol treatment Lipitor. Norvasc, which treats high blood pressure, had $4.7 billion in sales last year, according to figures complied by Bloomberg. „Today's unanimous decisions underscore our determination to defend our products against unwarranted attacks and to support research-based medical innovations that benefit millions of patients,” Allen Waxman, Pfizer's general counsel, said in the statement. Officials with Synthon's US offices in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, didn't immediately return a message seeking comment. (Bloomberg)