NOVARTIS' CHALLENGE OF INDIAN PATENT LAW BEGINS

A lawsuit filed by Novartis against the Indian patent office is set to go to court today in Chennai, India, despite the protests of humanitarian organizations.

Novartis is pursuing legal action against the Indian government following its decision to reject a patent application for the cancer drug Gleevec (imatinib mesylate), also called Glivec. By not issuing a patent, the government is allowing Indian companies to make cheaper generic versions of the drug for sale in India and for export to developing countries, according to aid groups.

The company emphasized in a statement last week that the case "is solely about safeguarding intellectual property" and not about patient access. In India, the vast majority of patients who take Gleevec receive it free through Novartis' patient-access program, according to the company.

In addition to the Gleevec decision, Novartis said it is challenging legal "hurdles" within Indian patent law that "discourage both breakthrough and incremental innovation."

International aid group Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been protesting Novartis' actions from the start and has circulated a petition urging the company to drop its case. "Novartis is challenging a specific provision in India's patent law that restricts patenting of medicines to innovations only. If the provision were overturned, patents would be granted far more widely in India, heavily restricting the production of affordable medicines that has become crucial to the treatment of diseases across the developing world," MSF said.

Another humanitarian organization, Oxfam, also disagrees with Novartis' actions. "Novartis says that it gives Glivec for free to poor patients, but Oxfam says this is not a sustainable way of providing medicines," the group said.