Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb lose patent protection on Zocor and Pravachol next year, removing any incentive.
On Monday, India's Supreme court rejected the firm's appeal to get patent protection for the drug.
BBC: Novartis: India rejects patent plea for cancer drug Glivec
Most of Pfizer's big sellers are aging, with many losing patent protection, causing sales to crumble.
We can extend patent protection on drugs so that profits can be maintained ad infinitum.
Companies expected their drugs would lose patent protection and go generic, as is happening now.
But you need patent protection to keep that talent from voting with its feet.
Under U.S. law, the clock on patent protection--20 years--starts ticking at a drug's invention.
The fact that drug companies thrived in the past without patent protection is irrelevant.
WSJ: Should Patents on Pharmaceuticals Be Extended to Encourage Innovation?
There's only one problem: Celexa is expected to lose patent protection at the beginning of 2004.
In the past few weeks, a rash of medicines have lost patent protection through court decisions.
Merck is losing patent protection in some countries on Zocor, its top-selling cholesterol medication.
Multibillion dollar revenue producers go off patent protection with nothing new waiting in the wings.
FORBES: Open Season On Icons, From Apple And Google To Charlie Sheen
Last year's loss of patent protection for asthma treatment Singulair continued to pressure sales.
Weak patent protection means that Chinese companies are reluctant to invest in research and development.
There are several reasons to believe that society overpays when it provides patent protection for software.
And best of all, the new combo would get the patent protection that Lipitor loses, until 2020.
Myriad says it needs patent protection for the years of research it invested in finding the genes.
FORBES: What If They Treated Gene Patents Like Nautical Charts?
This is a common strategy for companies trying to replace a blockbuster that is losing patent protection.
Vytorin itself is a combination of Schering-Plough's Zetia and Merck's Zocor, which lost patent protection in 2006.
That is only going to get worse as Zocor, Merck's cholesterol treatment, loses patent protection this summer.
Generic drugs, cheap knockoffs that hit the market after medicines lose patent protection, saw sales jump 20%.
It gives Google a hardware platform and patent protection for key aspects of its Android operating system.
Samsung is alleging that the iPhone 5 breaches patent protection, not the look and feel of design.
FORBES: Samsung Tries to Ban Apple's iPhone 5 Launch in Europe
Three once lucrative cholesterol-cutters have already lost patent protection (Merck's Mevacor and Zocor, and Bristol-Myers Squibb's Pravachol).
The easy availability of these dubious categories of patent protection, in other words, is the real problem.
FORBES: At CES, Companies Large and Small Bash Broken Patent System
Zocor loses its patent protection in June 2006, an event that can slash a drug's revenue by 80%.
Taxol, one of the most lucrative chemotherapy drugs ever, lost patent protection in the United States in 2002.
To Amarin, NCE status can mean the difference between three and roughly five years of patent protection for Vascepa.
Labs routinely turn naturally found molecules into innovative medicines and get patent protection.
But the latter two have lost patent protection, and their sales are vanishing.
应用推荐