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Biotech / Medical : PFE (Pfizer) How high will it go? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LWolf who wrote (5029)	8/19/1998 7:59:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Respond to of 9523

08/19 11:33 Belgium court kills plan to import Viagra [via a legal loophole] By Catherine Bremer BRUSSELS, Aug 19 (Reuters) - A plan to import the anti-impotence drug Viagra into Belgium via a legal loophole was thwarted on Wednesday when the drug's maker, Pfizer Inc. <PFE.N>, won a civil court case against the mastermind of the scheme. Self-employed consultant Guido Smets, 54, was ordered by the commercial court in Antwerp to cease efforts to import the drug, which has not been approved for sale in Belgium. U.S.-based Pfizer had filed a lawsuit saying it feared Viagra could be distributed without proper dosage instructions. "We felt that in doing this he was not only breaking Belgian law but also putting people's safety at risk because pharmacists were not getting information from us directly," a spokesman for bePfizer told Reuters. Pfizer Belgium spokesman Eddie Ryckman said Smets would have to pay for newspaper announcements to make clear to the public and the medical profession that his activities had been unauthorised. "The goal was not to claim damages but to stop what we saw as an illegal act as quickly as possible," said Pfizer's lawyer Bart de Moor. He added that Smet faces a penalty of 500,000 Belgian francs ($13,460) for every infringement of the ruling. Viagra, approved for sale in the United States in April, has been snapped up by some two million American men in the most successful drug launch ever. Highly sought-after around the world, Viagra is available in Switzerland but is still pending approval in the European Union. But under Belgian law if a patient requires a particular drug not available in the country, the pharmacist can buy it from abroad on an individual basis. Smets in July sent out letters to some 60 chemists in Belgium saying they could obtain Viagra from Swiss suppliers if they notified him of their prescriptions. "Spread the word as fast as possible to andrologists (male sex specialists), urologists and general practitioners in your area that they can now prescribe Viagra. Give them a copy of the attached medical information," reads a copy of the letter faxed to Reuters. The letter said the offer was limited to one chemist per 60,000 to 70,000 people to match an estimated demand of one person in 100. Asking pharmacists to notify him of prescriptions meant he could overcome the legal barrier of not being allowed to stock more of the drug than prescriptions required, Smets said. Smets also wrote to 30 hospital doctors telling them Viagra could now be obtained legally by prescription from Switzerland. It was after he wrote to Pfizer, informing them of his intentions, that the company decided to take legal action. Ryckman said there was no guarantee the medical information sent out by Smets, who says he copied it from the information Pfizer Zurich sent its Swiss clients, was correct. He said there could have been serious consequences if doctors had allowed patients to take Viagra with other drugs through ignorance. A spokesman for the Antwerp court said it would follow up complaints in the wake of the ruling from chemists who were now angry they could not obtain the drug. Smets said he had never used or seen a Viagra pill himself. ($1=37.15 Belgian Franc) moneynet.com@NEWS-P1&Index=0&HeadlineURL=../News/NewsHeadlines.asp&DISABLE_FORM=