Atorvastatin: Relief to Pfizer on 893' reexamination

Pfizer announced that it had received a Notice of Intent to Issue an Ex Parte Reexamination Certificate for US4681893 from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The '893 patent, which expires in March 2010, is product patent of Atorvastatin Hemicalcium. This patent covers racemic Atorvastatin.
The reexamination request was filed by a lawfirm representing Ranbaxy in July 2007. In the Notice of Intent's Statement of Reasons for Patentability and/or Confirmation, the Examiner indicated that Pfizer had overcome obviousness rejections based on EP0179 559 and US4647576. (Pfizer press release) (Patent doc article link )