The final arguments in the Indian Supreme Court case of Novartis vs. Government of India Section 3(d) patent case, due to start on July 10 , has been re-scheduled for August 22.
The request for postponement was from the legal counsel of the pharma major due to the unavailability of their main counsel.
In January 2006, the Patent Controller of India gave a decision against Novartis stating that its application for a patent on the beta-crystalline form of ‘imatinib mesylate’, Glivec, lacked novelty and was not patentable under section 3(d).
Novartis then challenged the validity of Section 3(d) of the Indian patent law. Though it lost this case in 2007, the pharma major approached the Supreme Court directly in 2009 by filing a special leave petition challenging the IPAB’s interpretation and application of section 3(d) to its patent application.
A press release from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) points out that the Novartis case is now scheduled just a day after the hearing of another crucial intellectual property issue impacting the pharma industry: the legal appeal against the grant of a compulsory license on Bayer anti-cancer drug Nexavar before the Intellectual Property Appellate Board in Chennai.
Bayer is challenging the first-ever compulsory license issued by the Patent Controller on March 9 this year which authorised generic major Natco Pharma to market a more affordable version of Bayer’s patented cancer medication Nexavar in India.
EP News Bureau – Mumbai