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Home » NOVARTIS TO CHALLENGE GLEEVEC PATENT REJECTION
NOVARTIS TO CHALLENGE GLEEVEC PATENT REJECTION
August 23, 2006
Novartis plans to appeal the Indian Patent Controller's decision to reject its patent application for Gleevec (imatinib mesylate) today in the Chennai High Court. Activist groups, including the Cancer Patients Aid Association and the Lawyers Collective, are protesting the event.
Novartis filed two cases in May challenging the refusal of its patent application and the constitutionality of a section of India's patent law that protects against trivial patents. The patent office rejected Novartis' application in January on the grounds that it was for a new form of an old drug.
According to the groups, litigation like that involving Novartis threatens the future availability of life-saving medicines like Gleevec, a leukemia drug. While the denial of a patent for Gleevec would allow Indian companies like Hetero, Ranbaxy and Cipla to make cheaper, generic versions of the drug, the outcome of the pending appeal case could eliminate such options for patients.
Novartis first submitted a patent application in India for Gleevec in 1998. In 2003 the company obtained exclusive marketing rights for the drug for five years.
KEYWORDS Daily International Pharma Alert
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