[Ip-health] Reuters: Court reserves order in Novartis patent case

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

16-30 April 2007

Court reserves order in Novartis patent case

Chennai

A court in India reserved its verdict on a challenge by Novartis AG
against an Indian law that blocks patenting of minor improvements in
known molecules. India is a vital source of cheap generic medicines and
campaign groups are worried that the poor in the developing world could
lose access to vital drugs if the Novartis challenge succeeds.

The giant Swiss drugmaker has argued that tightening of intellectual
property laws would boost investment in developing more medicines, and
says that the Indian patent system stifles innovation. The Madras High
Court did not fix a date when it would hand down its ruling on the
Novartis challenge.

The affair has become a test-case in a long-running war between "big
pharma" and humanitarian cam-paigners who say drug makers are putting
patents ahead of poor patients. The two-judge court also ordered that
another challenge by Novartis to a January decision that rejected its
patent application for cancer drug, Glivec, be referred to an appellate
board, consisting of experts and headed by a former judge. "We do not
want to express any opinion," the bench said on the Glivec case.

Last month, Novartis chief executive Daniel Vasella said that the
company did not seek "popularity awards" and would continue with its
legal action over the Indian patent system to "serve our patients and
remain competitive". In sub-Saharan Africa, home to two thirds of the
world's HIV-positive people, the concern is more acute, as some fear
the case if it goes in favour of Novartis could undermine India's role
as a source of cheap generic medicines, especially AIDS drugs.

Humanitarian agency Medecins Sans Frontieres has said tens of thousands
of people being treated for AIDS will suffer if the Swiss company
succeeds in changing India's patent law.

Reuters

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Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
voice +41.22.791.6727
fax +41.22.723.2988
mobile +41 76 508 0997
thiru@keionline.org