According to Times of India, Novartis obtained favourable court orders restraining five Ahmedabad-based pharma companies from manufacturing its patented drug for diabetes, Vildagliptin. Further, citing validity of its patent till 09 December 2019, Novartis moved the commercial court in Vadodara to ensure that four other companies do not get into production of the drug. It is reported that Novartis approached the Court after obtaining the requisite information from the State Government.
SpicyIP Tidbit: Novartis Pursues Aggressive Patent Strategy with Respect to Drug Vildagliptin
About The Author
Mathews P. George
Mathews is a graduate of West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata. He pursued LLM in 'IP and Competition Law' from the Munich Intellectual Property Law Centre (a joint collaboration of Max Plank Institute for Innovation and Competition, University of Augsburg, Technical University of Munich and George Washington University, Washington). His areas of practice include Technology Law in general (IPR, Competition Law, Data Protection Law etc) Corporate Law, Contract Law and Public Law (Constitutional Law and Criminal Law). He practises law and policy at both national and international levels. Presently, he is in Kerala. In addition to litigation before various courts in Kerala, he is also involved in various national and international policy and academic initiatives.
Am I missing something, or is “aggressive patent strategy” being used to mean “enforcing its patent”? Seems a bit much.
Kind of agree with you, Mr. Sadly No.
However, I believe that the bent was more in the context of patent expiring in 15 months from now … I am sure Novartis is (rightly so) going to not let any non-licensed player before Dec 2019.