Lasco Distributors has prevails against Pfizer in a law suit that Pfizer brought against Lasco. The local company had won the case in the local courts but Pfizer appealed the judgement to the Privy Council in 2012.
Lasco Distributors has now advised, that the Privy Council has dismissed the Appeal by Pfizer Limited and has affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeal.
“Lasco Distributors Limited’s (LDL) objection to grant Pfizer Limited a stay of the judgment of the Court was accepted by the Court of Appeal. This means that LDL is permitted to continue to trade in the product Las Amlodipine which it had been barred from distributing and to proceed to have the Supreme Court assess the damages caused by the issue of the injunction and to tax the cost payable by Pfizer,” the company reported in 2012.
Lasco ceased selling Las Amlodipine by an injunction granted in March, 2005, however, Lasco contended that under the provisions of the Patent Act of Jamaica, the Jamaican Patent was not in force when the Company started to market its own product, Las Amlodipine since an earlier patent No. 18266 granted to Pfizer in Egypt had expired in March 1997.
The matter was heard in the courts which found that the case for Pfizer for an infringement of Jamaican Patent No. 3247 failed. The court gave judgment for the Company with costs to be agreed or taxed and directed that there should be an enquiry as to damages suffered by the Company as a result of the interlocutory injunction granted to Pfizer under their undertaking in damages.
It is the expectation of the Company, based on legal advice it has received, that its lost sales of the product to date (estimated to be $400 million) are likely to be recovered in the event that it succeeds in this matter but it is difficult to quantify the amount of damages that could potentially be awarded to the Company as they will continue to accrue until the matter is decided. With the passage of time, the cost of money in Jamaica since 2005, lost sales from 2005 until they were permitted to start selling in 2012 and legal cost involved in the case Lasco distributors should end up with well over $1 billion from the case.
