Novartis resists more NGO pressure on Glivec

Swiss drug major Novartis, which recently won the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry-sponsored award for corporate social responsibility at the 2006 Scrip Pharmaceutical Awards, in the UK, is resisting pressure from non-governmental organizations to drop its intellectual property rights dispute with the Indian government over the anticancer drug Glivec (imatinib; Marketletter October 23). An editorial in Switzerland's Le Temps newspaper describes Novartis' legal action as "audacious."

The Swiss drug major is challenging the Indian government at the High Court of Justice in Chennai on two counts. First, Novartis disputes the decision by India's Patent Office to refuse the registration of Glivec/Gleevec, which came after pressure from a patient group. Local generic drugmakers sell copycat versions of Glivec for $2,100 per patient annually, which is one-tenth of the branded drug's price.

The second issue at stake is the interpretation by the Indian government of the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs). The government is accused by the Swiss drugmaker of taking an overly-flexible view of the TRIPs provision that allows a government to deny additional patents where only minor improvements are made to existing products.