Novartis Cancer-Drug Patent Denied by India’s Supreme Court
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India’s Supreme Court denied Novartis AG’s request for patent protection for its Gleevec cancer treatment, allowing the nation’s generic-drug makers to continue to sell copies of the drug at a lower price.
In a decision watched by non-profit groups seeking to expand access to medicines and drugmakers concerned about India’s position on intellectual property, the court today upheld regulatory rulings dating to 2006 that the drug wasn’t sufficiently innovative to merit a patent. Basel, Switzerland-based Novartis argued that the molecule imatinib, on which Gleevec is based, required years of research and modification to make it an effective, safe leukemia treatment.