Patent for Pharmacyclic's cancer drug revoked on challenge by Laurus Labs

Patent Office rules that the drug isn't an improvement over other formulations in the same space, hence not eligible to enjoy a patent

Pharmacyclics Inc, a Silicon Valley-based biopharmaceutical company and part of AbbVie, which itself is a spin-off from pharmaceutical giant Abbott, has lost a patent for its anti-cancer drug ibrutinib in India, following a post-grant objection raised by Andhra Pradesh-based Laurus Labs.

The Patent Office had, earlier this month revoked the patent observing that the claims made by Pharmacyclics are obvious to an ordinary person skilled in the art and that the drug lacks any inventive step that would make it superior to other existing formulations.

According to Pharmacyclics, ibrutinib is a small molecule that works by inhibiting an enzyme called protein kinase,