Novartis Loses India Patent Case

Novartis lost a patent case against Cipla in India over its cancer drug Gleevec when the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks ruled that the drug is not an invention that it recognizes.

There have been few rulings on pharmaceutical patent cases since last year when India introduced a new regime that protects pharmaceutical compounds. One technicality of the new patent regime is that it only recognizes patents that have been filed in India after 1995. In the Gleevec case, the Office of the Controller ruled that the key invention in the drug was protected by a patent filed in 1993.

According to the controller, the patent Novartis filed in 1998 for a crystal modification of the free base of the drug does not qualify as an invention. Cipla will reportedly file to have an injunction against marketing its generic form of the drug removed. Although the case specifically involved Cipla, several other Indian companies have introduced generic versions of Gleevec, only to be slapped with an injunction.