Patent board to hear Novartis' Gleevac case

The venue of the battle by Swiss multinational Novartis AG against the rejection of its patent application for blockbuster cancer drug Gleevac will now shift to the Patent Appellate Board's office.

The board, the apex complaint redressal forum on patent decisions, was constituted two days ago.

The transfer of the case was ordered today by the Madras High Court, which is hearing the case.

The Patent Appellate Board will decide the merit of the patentability case. What needs to be seen is whether the board will pick up the case from where the high court had left it or if it would start the proceedings afresh.

Besides the central government, Indian pharmaceutical companies that make generic versions of Gleevac, domestic pharmaceutical industry associations and public interest NGOs are party to the case.

The central government had issued a notification on April 2, declaring that the provision in the Patents (Amendment) Act (Section 117G), which provides that all pending appeals in the high court shall be transferred to the Appellate Board set up under the Act, shall be made effective from the date of the issue of the notification.