Chinese Court Upholds Pfizer's Viagra Patent

On June 5, 2006, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court upheld Pfizer's patent for the use of sildenafil citrate, the active ingredient in Viagra. The ruling reversed a decision by the Patent Reexamination Board of China's State Intellectual Property Office.

In 1994, Pfizer filed a Chinese patent application for the use of sildenafil citrate in male erectile dysfunction. Viagra, commonly referred to as "weige" or "great brother" in Chinese, was introduced into the Chinese market in 2000, and within six months, state media reported that approximately ninety percent of all Viagra pills sold in Shanghai were fake.

More than a dozen Chinese companies, known as the "Weige Alliance," challenged the validity of Pfizer's patent. In 2004, the Chinese Patent Reexamination Board invalidated the patent on the ground of insufficient disclosure of information due to failure to provide convincing technical content with the patent application.

It is unclear how the State Intellectual Property Office and the companies involved will react, but the decision will stand unless the case is appealed to Beijing Higher People's Court.

China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001 and promised to tighten patent protection, but enforcement of intellectual property rights has often continued to be weak within the Chinese border. The Bush administration considers this an important test to prove China's commitment to protect the intellectual property rights of foreign companies.