Viagra shows drugs not immune to China patent woes

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Beijing’s decision to throw out the world’s biggest drug maker’s patent on Viagra shows China’s intellectual property problems are not limited to the technology and entertainment sectors.

On Wednesday, China’s State Intellectual Property Office overturned the patent on Pfizer Inc.’s iconic, blue erectile-dysfunction pill.

The drug is a relatively small revenue earner for Pfizer in China, where foreign drug makers are pushing hard for a share of a market estimated to be worth about $7.4 billion in 2002, according to IMS, a U.S.-based pharmaceutical research firm.

Regulators cancelled Pfizer’s Chinese patent for sildenafil citrate, the active ingredient in Viagra, following complaints from Chinese generic drug makers who wanted to make their own versions of the best-selling sexual aid without paying licensing fees to Pfizer.

Marquis Lui, a pharmaceuticals analyst at Kim Eng Securities, said the ruling was a reminder of the lack of protection for foreign firms in China.

“It’s like a bad sign that Chinese don’t really respect intellectual property,” he said. “It’s not just pharmaceuticals, but other products: computer products, software.”

A spokesman for the patent office said Pfizer did not abide by the Chinese Patent Law, saying the U.S.-based company failed to provide officials with enough information detailing exactly how the active ingredient was produced.

“(Pfizer) must give us a clear and comprehensive description of its invention,” he told Reuters. “It has to be clear enough that others in the same field can copy it. Only then can we protect its patent.

“Chinese companies can (now) produce Viagra without paying the patent fee,” he said.

Pfizer said the information now being requested was not required at the time the patent was issued three years ago.

The company was preparing to appeal in court, the official said, adding the office first approved the Viagra patent in 2001 partly because the application was unchallenged by domestic firms.

Sexual potency aids are big business in a country where sheep penises and snake blood are widely consumed to enhance sexual prowess.

Some analysts said the decision showed the murkiness of rules foreign pharmaceutical giants face in China.

“Inadequate protection of intellectual property remains one of the biggest bugbears of foreign drugs firms in China,” the Economist Intelligence Unit said in a recent research report.

About 20 of the world’s top 25 drug firms have established a presence in the country, including Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Janssen, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, and GlaxoSmithKline Plc.

They have spawned a legion of imitators, especially Viagra, whose name in Chinese, “Weige”, means strong man. Its sales in China are relatively small because it is allowed to sell only to hospitals.

But a visit to any pharmacy or hotel store reveals copycat pills such as “Zhili”, packaged in a sleek black box and promising to offer immediate relief from impotence. The drug, offered by sales clerks as a Viagra alternative, sells for 99 yuan ($12) for a pack of three pills.

Another widely sold drug is branded as “Huge”, a transliteration of a Chinese phrase that means tiger man. In Chinese, the brand sounds like the local name for Viagra. It retails for 248 yuan for a pack of 15 pills. (Additional reporting by Judy Hua in Beijing and Edwin Chan in Shanghai).

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