New Delhi: In a setback
to generic drug makers, the Delhi high court on Friday set aside an
order of the Deputy Controller of Patents and Designs rejecting a patent
to US drug maker Gilead Pharmasset Llc for the hepatitis C drug
Sovaldi.
The medicine costs $1,000 a pill and cures hepatitis C in 90% of cases
when given for a 12-week course.
India’s patent office had questioned the therapeutic efficacy under
which the patent was claimed by Gilead and rejected its application
using the controversial Section 3(d) of the Patents Act, which prevents
evergreening of patents and provides that no new form of an existing
substance shall be patented unless the new form is much more effective
than the old one.
The Indian patent office, while rejecting the patent application, had
maintained that minor changes in the molecule did not improve its
efficacy. With the patent set aside, domestic generic drug manufacturers
could make the same drug for as low as $1 a pill.
“It was expected that the appeal would succeed because the process of
reasoning in the controller’s order was really shoddy, without
commenting on the merits of the conclusion,” said Shamnad Basheer,
former professor at National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata,
and founder of intellectual property blog SpicyIP.
Read more at: http://www.livemint.com/Politics/1l6EyoCRGd45A6oT0qpsBO/Delhi-high-court-sets-aside-order-on-Gileads-Sovaldi-patent.html?utm_source=copy
Labels: generic Sovaldi, India, Sovaldi patent dispute