Eli Lilly Presses Prozac Fight in China

Eli Lilly & Co., highlighting the issue of intellectual property rights in China, said it will take its fight for administrative protection of its antidepressant drug Prozac to China’s Supreme Court. At a news conference in Beijing a day before President Clinton is scheduled to arrive for his official visit, Lilly said it will appeal a Beijing court ruling that upheld a decision not to grant the company administrative protection for Prozac. Without such protection, Chinese companies now legally make and market drugs based on the same formula as Prozac. Separately, a new study said Dutch chemical company Akzo Nobel’s Remeron is more effective in the early weeks of depression treatment than Prozac. The difference waned after the first month of the six-week study involving 123 patients, researchers from the Feighner Research Institute in London said. Indianapolis-based Lilly’s shares rose $2.44 to close at $68.06 on the New York Stock Exchange.