Daiichi decision -- a commercial footnote

Nearly a fortnight ago, in "Mirror, mirror on the wall, what is the first marketing authorization for this enantiomer?" (here), this blog reviewed the judgment of Mr Justice Kitchin in the Patents Court for England and Wales decision in Generics (UK) Ltd v Daiichi Pharmaceutical Co Ltd and another [2008] EWHC 2413 (Pat). In that case the court showed how the UK courts deal with the issue of whether the marketing authorization for a racemic product counts as the first marketing authorization as required by Article 3(d) of the SPC Regulation.

I've just spotted that this decision has also been noted by a staff reporter for the Pharmaceutical Business Review in an article, "UK court upholds Daiichi Sankyo's levofloxacin SPC". This article doesn't add much to what we already know, but it does add some business background, mentioning that Daiichi Sankyo has granted an exclusive licence to Sanofi-Aventis to make, use and sell pharmaceutical preparations containing levofloxacin in the UK and that Sanofi-Aventis markets levofloxacin products in the UK under the trade name Tavanic.