A US appeals court reversed a lower court patent decision favoring Pfizer, which has been trying to block Bernie Sherman’s Apotex from launching a generic version of its Norvasc blood pressure pill. The drug rang up $4.8 billion in sales last year, making it Pfizer’s No. 2 med.

Pfizer may appeal, but Wall Street looks for generics to appear as early as next week. For instance, shares in Mylan Labs, which last month lost a federal patent case against Pfizer and was waiting ’til September to sell copycat Norvasc, are up 5 percent this afternoon.

Here’s what Prudential Equity’s Tim Anderson says about the impact on Pfizer and today’s winners: “We did not anticipate this ruling, but it will probably only have a muted impact on Pfizer, which is already a washed-out, low valuation name.

” Earlier generic entry is a negative and could cost the company $1B in sales or so in 2007, but given Pfizer’s size and cash generation this it not very material to the company’s future outlook, in our opinion. Many investors currently appear to view Pfizer as a near-hopeless name for the time being given its generic exposure, lack of growth, etc.

“The other company that stands to benefit is Novartis. Recall that Novartis has been holding off launching Exforge (combination of its mega-product Diovan with Norvasc) until Norvasc loses patent protection. The presumed Sept ‘07 launch could now be brought forward to March or April, which is a slight positive for Novartis.”

Additional reading…
The US Appeals Court ruling;
Pfizer’s statement;
Pfizer Victory Over Mylan in The Orange Book Blog;
A profile of Apotex in The New York Times.[tags]Apotex, Mylan Laboratories, Norvasc, Patents, Pfizer[/tags]