Posted: 08/04/2013
In a milestone case, the Supreme Court of India has rejected Novartis' application to patent an updated version of its cancer drug Glivec (imatinib), ruling that the product failed the invention and patentability requirements of India's patent law. The case hinged on the interpretation of section 3(d) of the Indian Patents Act, which does not allow patents for new forms of known drug molecules, unless they demonstrably make the medicine significantly more effective than before.
This marks an end to the long-running Indian case, which began with the initial rejection in January 2006 by the Patent Controller in Chennai of a patent application filed by Novartis in 1998.
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