The Hindu Business Line : Appellate board to hear Novartis case on June 18

Mumbai June 6 The Novartis case on the rejection of it's patent application on cancer drug Glivec is scheduled to come up for its first hearing before the recently-formed Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) on June 18.

Novartis had initially approached the Madras High Court following the rejection of its Glivec patent application by the Indian Patent Controller's office in January 2006.

Hearing

Domestic drug-makers such as Natco, Cipla, Hetero and Ranbaxy, besides patient-organisations like the Cancer Patients Aid Association had opposed Novartis' patent application at the Patent Controller's office. They were also respondents to the case filed by Novartis at the High Court.

This case, however, was transferred to the IPAB in April, following a notification from the Centre, and it is slated for its first hearing on June 18, an IPAB official confirmed.

The hearing would possibly be before the board's Chairman, Justice Mr M.H.S. Ansari, and technical member Mr S. Chandrasekaran, the official said.

The transfer of the case to the IPAB had worried the Swiss drug-maker as the board comprised Mr Chandrasekaran, the present Controller General of Patents, among others.

Mr Chandrasekaran was the head of the Patent Office when Novartis' patent application on Glivec was rejected last year. And it was this decision by the Patent Office that Novartis was contesting at the Madras High Court in the first place.

More Stories on : Pharmaceuticals | Courts/Legal Issues | IPR

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