PHM-Exch> AstrZeneca's cancer drug patent rejected

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: shila kaur <kaur_shila at yahoo.com>


Another big blow for Big Pharma in India.
Shila Kaur
Coordinator
Health Action International Asia Pacific (HAIAP)

*From:* Gopal Dabade <drdabade at gmail.com>**

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/295062/astrazenecas-cancer-drug-patent-rejected.html
*
AstraZeneca’s cancer drug patent rejected*


New Delhi, Nov 28, 2012, Reuters:
*India's patents appeal board has dismissed British drugmaker AstraZeneca's
petition challenging an earlier ruling that refused patent protection for a
cancer-fighting drug, in the latest blow for Big Pharma in the country.*

The Indian patents office in 2007 refused patent protection to
AstraZeneca's quinazoline molecule, citing lack of invention. The
Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) on Monday upheld the refusal.

The decision is also a setback for struggling AstraZeneca, which is
battling to turn itself around as key drugs lose patent protection.

Global drug companies suffered a high-profile reversal in March when India
granted the first ever compulsory licence to domestic drugmaker Natco
Pharma to sell cheap copies of Bayer's cancer drug Nexavar. Bayer has
appealed the order.

And early this month IPAB revoked a six-year-old Indian patent granted to
Roche's hepatitis C drug Pegasys, citing lack of evidence that the drug was
any better than existing treatments.

Multinational drug manufacturers regard India's $13 billion drug market as
a huge opportunity, but are wary of what they see as lax protection for
intellectual property in a country where generic medicines account for more
than 90 percent of sales. Indian generic companies, which do not need to
plough money into future research, can produce drugs at a fraction of the
cost of originator firms like Roche or Bayer.

Natco and another domestic drugmaker, G M Pharma, had opposed the initial
patent application for AstraZeneca quinazoline derivative. The
London-listed company filed a review petition, which India's patent office
dismissed in 2011.

A challenge to a review petition does not come under the purview of the
IPAB, and even on merit the petition has failed, S Majumdar & Co, the
counsel for Natco Pharma, said in a statement.

AstraZeneca could not immediately be reached for a comment by Reuters. The
company has the option to take its case to India's Supreme Court
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