IN the face of a legal challenge by a multi-national pharmaceutical giant, a South African pharmaceutical company has fought for and won the right to continue making cancer treatment available at an affordable price for South African cancer patients. CEO of Eurolab Pty Ltd, Lynne Du Toit,, said they are celebrating the judgment handed down by Judge AJ Le Grange in the Court of the Commissioner of Patents.

“This ruling has significant implications for the pharmaceutical industry and intellectual property law, particularly in patent enforcement strategies,” said Du Toit.

The matter arose after Eurolab identified the potential of enzalutamide, an inhibitor, used in the treatment of prostate cancer patients in South Africa. The patentee was the Regents of the University of California (UC), Astellas Pharma Inc, Astellas Pharma Europe Ltd and Astellas Pharma (Pty) Ltd. Eurolab and its attorneys established that the patent was invalid.

“As a result, despite the rather daunting prospect of litigating against a multinational giant, Eurolab stuck to its vision of making oncology treatments more widely accessible and affordable, and put into process plans to launch its enzalutamide product, Enzutix,” said Du Toit.

The court addressed the matter directly and the only issue to be considered was whether UC, as the patentee, was entitled to apply for the patent, as it had. The judge ruled that they were not, because the inventors of the medicine had not signed over their rights to UC, which means the intellectual property did not belong to UC. The ruling has significant implications for the pharmaceutical industry and intellectual property law, particularly in generic drug manufacturing and patent enforcement strategies.

“It’s a win not only for Eurolab, but also for all the South African patients who are desperately in need of the product at an affordable price,” said Du Toit.