[Ip-health] PTI: CPAA sends defamation notice to Novartis

[Mira Shiva]

Dear Chan ,
keep up the good work  on the Novartis Case .Please also let me know what I
can do to support the work & also as AIDAN .Since Novartis has been using
Mashelkar Committee report on Patentability , Mashelkar Committee Report
also needs addressing .
Keayelaji   National Working Group on Patent Laws had called a meeting & we
met in ICMR to address this issue . A collective response is being prepared
. If Cabinet accepts Mashelkar Report it will be disastrous .
 Please look at the IFPMA CODE & see if in some way Novartis action is seen
as violation of the code . I too will look at it & complaint should be
registered there too

Warm Regards

Mira Shiva

----- Original Message -----
From: "chan park" <chansoobak@yahoo.com>
To: <ip-health@lists.essential.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 12:23 PM
Subject: [Ip-health] PTI: CPAA sends defamation notice to Novartis


--
[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
      CPAA sends defamation notice to Novartis

PTI [ TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2007 06:10:14 PM]
                NEW DELHI: Mumbai-based social group Cancer Patient Aids
Association (CPAA) has sent a defamation notice to Swiss pharmaceutical
giant Novartis AG chairman and CEO Daniel Vasella and demanded half a
million dollars in damages.

CPAA's chairman Y K Sapru has alleged Vasella made "certain defamatory
statements and insinuations" in an article titled 'Novartis persists with
challenge to Indian patent law despite adversity' that was picked up by
different websites.

In the article, Vasella had said generic companies were often behind (the
activism of) patients' groups in India and he would not be surprised if they
gave money to the groups.

"It (the article) represents that generic companies paid to us to oppose MNC
pharma companies in India," CPAA said.

The group, which is involved in a case against Novartis in Madras High Court
over the pharma giant's challenge of India's patent law, contended that
Vasella's statement was defamatory and CPAA never took money from any
generic firm.

"This is false and per se defamatory," CPAA said in the notice and added the
article had put the group "in an extremely embarrassing position".

CPAA further asked the MNC to retract from its statement and "to issue an
unconditional apology over company's website and on the Intellectual
Property Watch".

It has also warned the company to face civil or criminal proceedings in case
of non-completion.

Novartis has challenged the government's patent law in the Madras High Court
over its cancer drug Glivec. The company was earlier denied a patent by the
Chennai-based patent office in January 2006.



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