Supreme Court today has dismissed patent plea of Novartis AG for its cancer drug Glivec. The verdict pulled down Novartis India scrip by over 4.5 per cent in the morning session on BSE. Currently the scrip is moving around Rs. 572.
While rejecting Novartis plea, the Supreme Court said that the patents would be granted only for genuine inventions. Novartis filed case way back in 2006 for a fresh patent in India for its cancer drug imatinib mesylate when the Indian patent office rejected the same.
This verdict will allow several Indian companies like Cipla, Natco and others to offer cost effective generic version in the Indian market.
The Supreme Court Judge said that the Novartis' claim is rejected as the new drug does not meet any standard for novelty or inventiveness. It was an old molecule and hence the drug can't get repeated patent protection in India.
Novartis AG reported worldwide sales of Gleevec/Glivec at US$ 4,675 million during the year ended December 2012 as against $4,659 million in the previous year. The company's revenues declined by 3.2 per cent to $56.8 billion from $58.6 billion and its pharmaceutical revenue declined to $32.2 billion. It has an industry-leading pipeline with over 200 projects in clinical development, including 138 in pharmaceuticals.