Author name: Madhulika Vishwanathan

Madhulika is a registered Indian patent agent and has completed her Master’s in Pharmacology from the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Mumbai. Her interests include issues involving pharmaceutical and biotechnology patent law, regulatory aspects like Hatch Waxman litigation and antitrust law.She is currently working at law firm based out of Memphis, TN.

Patents vs. Patients: Department of Pharmaceuticals issues draft policy on pricing of patented drugs

/ By / Patent

Earlier this week, the Department of pharmaceuticals (DOP) issued a draft proposal on price negotiation of patented drugs and has invited comments from stakeholders on the recommendations of the committee before the end of this month. This draft policy proposal couldn’t have come at a better time, especially since the IPAB decision on Bayer’s appeal against compulsory license(CL) issued for its Nexavar (First ever post TRIPS CL granted by India) is expected early next week.   The Parliamentary standing committee’s …

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LDCs seek indefinite extension of transition period for TRIPS compliance

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East African countries and other least developed countries (LDCs) are lobbying for an extension of transition period beyond the current date of July 1, 2013 to become TRIPS compliant. The LDC groups’ request for extension of transition period will be discussed in the WTO council meet scheduled to be held next week. This proposal for extension has garnered support from more than 300 civil society organizations.  The WTO recognizes least developed countries as those comprising more than 880 million people (approximately 12% …

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Revisiting the Trans Pacific partnership agreement

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Last week’s State of the Union address highlighted important aspects of President Obama’s second term agenda. President Obama identified Trans Pacific Partnership(TPP) agreement as a top trade priority and reaffirmed his commitment to conclude negotiations on the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement. To quote, “To boost American exports, support American jobs, and level the playing field in the growing markets of Asia, we intend to complete negotiations on a Trans-Pacific Partnership.” Image from here In an earlier article Swaraj had elucidated …

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Spicy IP Tidbit: Indian patent office puts an end to Sunitinib saga

/ By / Others

Image from here   Pfizer/Sugen was granted a patent on anti-cancer drug Sunitib (Patent number: 209251) on Oct 5, 2007.Nearly 5 years later in a post grant opposition initiated by Cipla, this patent was revoked by the patent office on the grounds of obviousness. An excellent analysis of this decision is covered here.     As reported by Prashant, in a rather surprising turn of events, patentees (Pfizer/Sugen) filed a writ petition before Delhi High court requesting that the revocation decision …

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Patent prosecution highway: A potential game changer for India

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     The patent prosecution highway (PPH) is a kind of bidirectional work sharing agreement between two patent offices which allows examiners of one patent office to reuse search and examination results already conducted by another patent office. This post aims to explore how India might possibly benefit by becoming a part of the patent prosecution highway program.  The USPTO extended its first patent prosecution highway as a pilot program with Japan in July 2006. Since then the US patent prosecution highway program …

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