The Novartis Decision: Is the Big Win for Indian Pharma Bad News for Investment?

[Time]

In a decisive victory for India's pharmaceutical industry, India's Supreme Court rejected Novartis' patent application for the cancer drug Glivec on Monday, ending a seven-year battle by the Swiss drugmaker to get a patent in India on its powerful leukemia drug. The medication, which was approved for use in the U.S. back in 2001, has been produced generically by Indian pharmaceuticals for years at a fraction of the Swiss drug's cost. The Indian drug industry's victory, however, is being described as a stunning defeat for intellectual-property rights and may have repercussions on India's attempts to attract foreign investment. Nevertheless, health activists have called the top court's decision a win for patients seeking cheaper treatment and against "evergreening," the alleged practice of making minor tweaks to an existing drug to prolong a company's hold on a patent and protect it from being produced by other firms as a cheaper generic version once the patent has expired. The ruling was met with enthusiasm by Indian drug manufacturers, which produce a generic version of Glivec, or Gleevec, as it is called in the U.S. market. Patients'-rights groups, who advocate for cheaper drugs to be available in countries like India where few can afford costly medication, also applauded the move. Advocates were concerned that a ruling in favor of Novartis could set a precedent that would ultimately cut off India's vast supply of cheap generic drugs for diseases like HIV. Such medicines are exported to other developing markets. Millions of poor patients rely on them. (MORE: How an Indian Patent Case Could Reshape the Future of Generic Drugs) India's generic-drug industry took off in 1970 after the government allowed for multiple patents to be granted on products with small adjustments to the process in which they were made. Today the industry is one of the nation's biggest moneymakers, but India itself is a hugely attractive market for pharmaceutical companies. Novartis filed for an Indian patent on Glivec in 2006 and appealed after its application was rejected on the grounds that the drug had simply

Via: TIME GlobalSpin