Delivering a body blow to the Swiss drug major Novartis, the Madras High Court dismissed its petition challenging the constitutional validity of the sect 3 (d) of the patents (amendment) Act 2005, under which the patent application for its blockbuster cancer drug Glivec was rejected.

Dismissing the Novartis plea for patent protection to Glivec, a division bench comprising Justice R Balasubramanian and Justice Prabha Sridevan held that the court cannot decide whether the Act was in accordance with trade related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS) agreement or not.

The much awaited court verdict came after prolonged arguments for and against the petition filed by the Swiss drug major. While noted lawyers Soli Sorabjee and Shanti Bhushan argued for Novartis, additional solicitor general VT Gopalan appeared for the Union of India and the Patent Controller. Several other lawyers representing several drug companies also gave their argument against the 'Novarits' plea for patent protection for its cancer drug.

After hearing both the sides, the court had earlier reserved its verdict, which it delivered on Monday.