A Seoul court has ruled in favor of Swiss drug giant Novartis AG on a drug patent suit against SK Chemicals Co., a South Korean pharmaceutical and chemicals manufacturer, court officials said Thursday.

The Seoul Central District Court ordered SK Chemicals to cease the production of its generic drugs, saying that the local firm has infringed upon a patent on treatment for Alzheimer’s disease developed by Novartis, they said.

Earlier last month, the Swiss drug firm filed for an injunction with the court against SK Chemicals to ban the production of its drug SID710, claiming that the local firm copied its Exelon Patch.

Novartis argued that SK Chemicals has illegally imported its patent chemical component, Rivastigmine, since 2008 and copied it to produce the similar drug, even though the patent term was valid until this year.

“SK Chemicals has imported a considerable amount of Rivastigmine and developed SID710 between August of last year and most recently (ahead of the patent expiry date),” the court said in its ruling.

The ruling, however, is unlikely to affect SK Chemicals’ production of its generic drugs in the future as the ban imposed on Nov. 18 was limited to only five days until the Nov. 23 expiry date. (Yonhap News)