Glivec final hearing from Nov 17

The high profile legal battle over patent rights of Glivec, a blockbuster cancer drug from the stables of Swiss pharma major Novartis, will enter its final phase on November 17.

The Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB), the apex patent complaint redressal forum, today decided the modalities of the final hearing of Novartis’ appeal against the rejection of Glivec patent by the Indian patent office. The hearing will continue on a day-to-day basis and is expected to be completed by November 28.

In addition to Novartis, IPAB will hear the views of Indian durg-makers such as Natco and Cipla and civil society groups who were part of the three-year-old litigation before giving its verdict.

The stage was set for the final hearing last month after the Supreme Court announced the appointment of a technical member just to hear the appeal case against Glivec patent rejection. The SC intervention was on the basis of a petition filed by Natco Pharma against a Madras High Court directive, which allowed IPAB to hear Novartis appeal without a technical member.

Glivec is a major revenue earner for Novartis. The company holds patents rights for Glivec in about 40 countries. Among the Indian companies, Natco manufactures a generic version of Glivec in India.

In November 2007, the Madras HC approved a suggestion to allow IPAB to go ahead with the Glivec hearing without a technical member. The HC ruling was based on a Novartis petition, which felt that the former patent controller S Chandrasekaran, during whose term the patent was rejected, should not be the technical member when the appeal comes for hearing.