GlaxoSmithKline patent revoked

A GlaxoSmithKline patent for its number one product, the asthma medicine Seretide, has been revoked by a British court, a decision that may make it difficult for Europe’s biggest drugmaker to fend off generic challenges in Britain.

Justice Nicholas Pumfrey of the High Court in London ruled that Glaxo’s combination patent for Seretide, an inhaled treatment that mixes two medicines, a steroid and a bronchodilator to relax constricted airways, was not valid.

The ruling determined that the combination patent for Seretide, which Glaxo markets in the US under the name Advair, was an obvious variation of an earlier invention.