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Showdown for Big Pharma in India's highest court

Posted: August 20, 2012 |   Comments

(Reuters) - India's highest court will hear final arguments starting this week in a landmark case over drug patents that could change the rules for the country's healthcare sector and potentially curb its global role as a supplier of cut-price generic medicines.

The Supreme Court hearing pits Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG against India's patent office, which has refused to grant a patent on the company's cancer drug Glivec on the grounds that it is not a new medicine but an amended version of a known compound.

A patent would recognize Novartis' property rights, in a blow to generic drugmakers who supply medicine to 1.2 billion Indians and to poorer nations across the world, although generic forms of Glivec launched before 2005 would stay on the market.

Read the full article here: http://www.reuters.com

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