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JI7

(89,172 posts)
Mon Apr 1, 2013, 05:24 AM Apr 2013

Top Court in India Rejects Novartis Drug Patent

Source: ny times

India’s Supreme Court rejected a Swiss drug maker’s patent application for a major cancer drug Monday in a landmark ruling that allows cheap copies of important medicines to continue being distributed in much of the world.

Novartis had hoped that India’s adoption under international pressure of a new patent law would lead the country to grant the company an exclusive license to produce Gleevec, which can cost up $70,000 per year. Indian generic versions cost about $2,500 year.

But the court’s ruling confirmed that India’s criteria for the granting of such patents remain far higher than those in the United States, where patents are so easy to win that one was given in 1999 for a peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich. Which country’s patent system does more to protect the sick and encourage invention has become an increasing source of international debate.

The ruling Monday is bound to be seen with some concern by the United States and the international pharmaceutical industry and may be yet another blow to India’s standing among major multinational companies, many of whom view protection of their intellectual property as vital to their business interests.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/business/global/top-court-in-india-rejects-novartis-drug-patent.html

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Top Court in India Rejects Novartis Drug Patent (Original Post) JI7 Apr 2013 OP
this is a landmark decision...I read about the case months ago.. srican69 Apr 2013 #1

srican69

(1,426 posts)
1. this is a landmark decision...I read about the case months ago..
Mon Apr 1, 2013, 06:27 AM
Apr 2013

Basically pharmaceutical companies cannot apply fresh patents on existing drugs like the do here on the United states to keep the money floating..

Millions of cancer patients will benefit from this ruling...not just in India but across much of Africa as well..

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