The government's new proposal to appoint a two member review panel without the technical member for hearing Novartis' appeal for Glivec patent may get the Madras High Court consent, legal experts said. The HC is expected to issue the order during its hearing of the case on October 23, 2007.

When the matter came up before the High Court in Chennai 22nd, October, Novartis showed its willingness to agree with the government's new proposal, according to lawyers involved in the case.

With this, the legal experts point out that tomorrow the court may legally approve the government's suggestion to assign the patent issue to the two-member review panel (chairman and a vice-chairman of Intellectual Property Appellate Board) without technical members, instead of the official three-member panel.

"The government's proposal was to go ahead with a panel consisting of the two top officials in the appellate board without technical members. Most of the parties included in the case have agreed with the suggestion and the court will come up with its decision by tomorrow," informed A Ramesh Kumar, lawyer representing Cipla in the case.

Ranbaxy Labs, Natco Pharma, Hetero Drugs and the Cancer Patients Aid Association India are also parties in the case, as it had filed a pre-grant opposition to Novartis' patent application for Glivec earlier.

Commenting on the latest development, the Novartis spokesperson informed, "we look forward to explain our case to an impartial board and to demonstrate that Glivec - our life-saving drug for cancer, which is patented in nearly 40 countries - should be granted a patent in India".

The government put forward its new suggestion in the previous hearing by the Madras High court on October 8, 2007, while defending a writ petition filed by Novartis against IPAB's decision to allow the former Patent Controller General S Chandrasekharan as the IPAB technical member to hear the Swiss drug major's patent plea for its blockbuster cancer drug Glivec.