Indian Patent Office's Consecutive Decision On Rejecting Tofacitinib Patent Application

Indian Patent Office (IPO) on September 3rd, 2015 denied Pfizer (Applicant) Inc's patent application on its rheumatoid arthritis drug Tofacitinib for the second time. The IPO rejected the Patent Application on the grounds of anticipation by prior claiming as well as on basis of Section 3(d) of the Patents Act (Act).

BRIEF BACKGROUND

Pfizer Products, Inc. (Pfizer) filed Indian patent application 991/MUMNP/2003¹ entitled "Chiral Salt Resolution" in the Indian Patent Office (IPO) on October 27, 2003. The '991 application describes methods for effecting chiral salt resolution from racemic mixtures of enantiomers, particularly precursor enantiomers, for use in making pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidine compounds. The pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidine compounds are inhibitors of protein kinases, such as the enzyme Janus Kinase 3 (JAK3). The specification describes the enantiomer, 3-{(3R,4R)-4-Methyl-3-[methyl-(7Hpyrrolo[ 2,3-d]pyrimidin-4-yl)-amino]-piperidin-1-yl}-3-