| The Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) today dismissed Novartis’s petition seeking a new member in place of former Patent Controller S Chandrasekhar to hear its appeal on the denial of an Indian patent for its blockbuster blood cancer drug, Glivec.
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| Novartis was of the view that Chandrasekhar being the patent controller who had denied patent rights for Glivec should not be on the IPAB when an appeal against the decision is heard. IPAB, in its verdict today, dismissed Novartis’s plea.
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| Terming the development disappointing, a Novartis spokesperson said the company was considering various options.
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| “Today’s decision was a summary judgement and we will not know the panel’s reasoning until a full written judgement is issued. We will consider our options once we see the full text,” she said.
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| The government counsel, during the final hearing of this case on July 10, had defended the appointment of Chandrasekhar as technical member of IPAB.
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| He had contended that Novartis should have made its objection when the case was shifted to the Appellate Board and since it had failed to do so, it had no right to raise the issue now.
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| The denial of patent to Glivec was the first case of a multinational being denied patent protection for a drug that enjoys monopoly marketing rights in about 40 countries.
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| The Indian Patent Office had said that the medicine did not deserve patent protection according to Indian patent law.
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| The decision of the patent office was challenged by Novartis in the Chennai High Court. The court transferred the case to IPAB after the government announced the setting up of IPAB and declared the transfer of all pending IP related appeals to it recently. |
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