Court upholds Roche plea, tells Cipla not to use Valcept brand

The Bombay High Court on Friday restrained domestic generic drug maker Cipla from using the trademark Valcept for its generic version of anti-infection drug valganciclovir. The court upheld Swiss multinational drug company F Hoffman-La Roche’s plea for an injunction as the court felt the name Valcept is confusingly similar to that of Roche’s CellCept (mycophenolate mofetil), a patented medicine. CellCept is used in the prevention of organ rejection in patients receiving kidney, heart or liver transplants.

“The Bombay High Court has again ruled in favour of us in the trademark cases and we are happy with the decision,” said S M Laud, company secretary and director, Roche India.

On December 10, justice Abhay Oke of the Bombay High Court had upheld Roche’s another plea to restrain Cipla from selling Valcept for infringing the trademark rights of Roche’s anti-infection drug brand Valcyte (valganciclovir). The court had directed Cipla to implement the decision within three weeks.

Cipla will not appeal the Bombay High Court decision and may change the name of the product within the timeframe given by the Bombay High Court, Amar Lulla, joint managing director, Cipla, had told Business Standard, two days ago.

Cipla launched the generic version of Valcyte — an important drug for HIV/AIDS patients to control infections in eyes in January this year. Within a few months, Roche filed a patent infringement suit and two trademark rules violation cases against Cipla in the Bombay High Court.

Two days ago, the Supreme Court of India had directed the Indian Patent Office to decide the patent validity of Valcyte before 31 January, based on Roche’s special leave petition challenging a Madras High Court ruling early this month directing the Indian Patent Office to review the patent granted for Valcyte in India.

The Chennai court’s decision was in response to a case filed by the Indian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS and the Tamil Network of People with HIV/AIDS citing their opposition was not heard before the patent was granted for the drug. The patent was granted for Roche in June 2007, and the drug lacks novelty for patenting in India, the groups had argued. According to the Indian patent laws, a patent can be challenged within 12 months.

The two companies are also engaged in a high-profile legal battle in the Delhi High Court over Cipla’s launch of another patented Roche drug Tarceva (erlotinib), a lung cancer drug.