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 The Basel-based firm has filed infringement
proceedings and is seeking an injunction against Biocon at Delhi's
High Court to try to stop the Indian company launching a generic
version of Galvus, also known as vildagliptin.
In a hearing that took place on March 28, the Delhi court ordered
that Biocon cannot manufacture, sell or export vildagliptin until
the next court hearing, Novartis said in an emailed statement.
"A robust and predictable intellectual property (IP) system is an
essential pillar of an innovative life science industry," Novartis
said.
Galvus is one of the company's best-selling medicines, achieving
$1.2 billion in sales last year.
In a statement Biocon said it respected all valid intellectual
property in India.
"Biocon has not been issued any injunction on vildagliptin; nor has
Biocon launched the product in India. There is no impact on our
immediate plans for this product," the company said.
India's drug market has proven a headache for Big Pharma, with the
government imposing wide-ranging price cuts and authorities
overruling patents as they strive to make medicines affordable for
the 70 percent of people living on less than $2 a day.
But with 1.2 billion people increasingly seeking both on- and
off-prescription drugs, the market is too big for global drugmakers
to ignore.
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This is the second patent battle Novartis has had over Galvus in
India. On March 5 Delhi's High Court granted a preliminary
injunction against generic drugmaker Wockhardt for infringing the
basic compound patent on vildagliptin, Novartis said.
Wockhardt has challenged the validity of the patent at the
Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) and the case is
ongoing, the Swiss drugmaker added.
(Reporting by Caroline Copley in Zurich and Zeba Siddiqui in Mumbai;
editing by David Goodman)
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