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Canadian drug maker Apotex Inc. won a small victory yesterday in its legal bid to sell a generic version of the anti-depressant drug Paxil, after a U.S. judge ruled against British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline PLC over one of its patents.

In what industry watchers expect will continue to be a protracted battle to challenge the patents for the popular anti-depressant, a District Court judge in Philadelphia ruled in a pretrial summary judgment in favour of Apotex subsidiary TorPharm.

However, the judge ruled in favour of Glaxo on another related Paxil patent and rendered a split decision on two other patent disputes. Those three disputes will now proceed to trial, and Glaxo said it will appeal the summary decision against it.

Apotex and Glaxo also are fighting similar legal challenges regarding Paxil patents in Illinois District Court.

The patent for Paxil, which was introduced in 1993, expires in 2006. A spokeswoman for Glaxo explained that the drug has more than one patent because of variations over time in how it has been made.

The company added that it continues to see "significant hurdles that prevent the launch of a generic Paxil product."

Consequently, Glaxo didn't change its earnings forecast for single-digit growth per share this year and next, assuming it will win the U.S. court cases to defend the patents.

Glaxo originally began legal action when Apotex sought approval to market Paxil in the United States in 1998.

Although patent challenges by drug producers are par for the course in the pharmaceutical industry, the two companies' legal teams made headlines in a separate case earlier this month when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled against Apotex and Novopharm Ltd., now owned by Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd., in their challenge against Glaxo's patent on AIDS-fighting drug AZT.