In a seven-year-long battle and one of the landmark patent cases in India, the Supreme Court has rejected Novartis’s Indian patent for an amended form of anticancer drug Glivec. The move is set to have big implications for the world's largest drugmakers and may lead to a reduction in foreign investment in Indian pharma companies. However, on the flip side, the Glivec judgement has also ensured that drugs will continue to be accessible to the poorest of the poor.
Y K Hamied, Chairman of Cipla, termed it a victory for India. ‘The verdict will help the country get cancer drugs at affordable prices. It is a victory for patients who will have access to medicines at affordable prices,’ he said.
The international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) concurred. ‘This is a huge relief for the millions of patients and doctors in developing countries who depend on affordable medicines from India, and for treatment providers like MSF,’ said Dr Unni Karunakara, MSF International President.
‘The Supreme Court's decision now makes patents on the medicines that we desperately need less likely. This marks the strongest possible signal to Novartis and other multinational pharmaceutical companies that they should stop seeking to attack the Indian patent law.’
Leena Menghaney, India Manager for MSF’s Access Campaign, added: ‘Patent offices in India should consider this a clear signal that the law should be strictly applied, and frivolous patent applications should be rejected.’
India’s Supreme Court ruled that the drug had failed in ‘both the tests of invention and patentability’ under the Indian law. The Court held that Glivec was an example of ‘incremental innovation' under Section 3(d) of the Indian Patents Act and, as such, was not liable for a patent.
Not yet a Subscriber?
This is a small extract of the full article which is available ONLY to premium content subscribers. Click below to get premium content on Manufacturing Chemist.
Subscribe now Already a subscriber? Sign in here.