Israel refuses escitalopram SPC

In April the SPC Blog published news of the invalidity of Lundbeck's escitalopram patent and SPC in the Netherlands (see also IPKat post here). Now, via Jeffrey Boone (Covidien), comes information of the fate of escitalopram in Israel, thanks to a newsletter article by the Reinhold Cohn Group. According to that firm,

"... The Israeli Patent office recently refused H. Lundbeck's application to extend the term of its Israeli patent, covering its blockbuster drug Cipralex® whose active pharmaceutical ingredient is the single (S)-enantiomer (escitalopram) of the racemate Citalopram. The refusal was based on the Israeli Registrar's conclusion that the first registration of a drug containing escitalopram by the Israeli Ministry of Health was the previous registration of the racemate (Citalopram, marketed as Cipramil®)".

The newsletter article then goes on to analyse the Patent Office decision which, it concludes, was erroneous.