The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and the United States India Business Council
are miffed over the recent Novartis judgment of the Supreme Court (SC) of India. For us, however, this ruling on the

The compulsory licence issued to Natco for manufacture of the anti-cancer drug Nexavar is a landmark decision on many grounds – the first one in India since the 2005 amendment to the 1970 Patents Act and the fi rst in the world issued to a private party. There are some ambiguities in the order, but the door is now open for issue of CLs for a number of patented drugs that are not being worked.

It is scandalous that India is yet to issue a single compulsory licence for a drug after the 2005 amendment. (Editorial)

When pharmaceutical company Novartis challenged the rejection of its patent application for the leukemia drug Gleevec in Novartis AG v. Union of India, it became the first major legal challenge to India’s newly amended patent law. In 2005, India purportedly made the final changes required to bring its intellectual property laws in compliance with the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) minimum standards for intellectual property protection, but its patent law is still fraught with a number of controversial provisions.