A five-year wait by two Jamaican pharmaceutical drugs distributors for compensation for loss of sales resulting from a court battle over their sale of generics in competition with global drug giant Pfizer should end today in the local Supreme Court.

The long-awaited decision in the case involving local firms Lasco Distributors Limited and Medimpex Jamaica Limited is expected this morning in the Supreme Court in downtown Kingston, from Justice Viviene Harris, who had delayed judgement into the current Michaelmas term after hearing the case up to April.

The local firms are seeking a combined total of approximately US$501 million from Pfizer — one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies — for loss of sales related to a seven-year injunction which was sought by Pfizer and awarded by the Jamaican Supreme Court in 2005, pending judgement on the drug giant’s case for breach of patent letters by both local distributors for generics in competition with Pfizer’s amlopidine-based hypertension drug, Norvasc.

The injunction, which lasted from 2005 until 2012, when the Supreme Court completed its case, prevented both companies from distributing their amlopidine besylate generics. However, the local companies eventually won the case in the Supreme Court, as well as the appeal brought by Pfizer in the local appeal court, and the final appellate hearing before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, which asked that the local Supreme Court calculate the damages owed by Pfizer to both companies.

The country would benefit to the tune of some US$60 million in taxes if the court awards the full claim by the Jamaica companies.

— Balford Henry