Novartis Puts Halt On R&D Activities In India

Novartis has put a halt on its research and development venture in India, said Daniel Vasella, CEO of the company. This action is reportedly a result of the company facing patent challenges.

Mr Vasella commented that the country’s intellectual property (IP) protection is not upto the mark. “In principle you can discover in India, you can do research. There has been some progress on the protection of intellectual property but its not up to the standard that I would expect to make an investment into discovery led research.

“IP is very fundamental to our business and any investment we make without it is a no go. Now Indian companies are also investing in research and I believe they would create something more of an intellectual basis.”

The CEO also said that the decision to invest $1m in China instead of India was due to the bitter experiences with Gilvec. For the past four years Novartis has been fighting legal tussle for Gilvec, a cancer drug.

Earlier, Bombay and Madras High Courts has denied patent rights to Novartis for Gilvec, which has prompted the company to appeal in Supreme Court.

Mr Vasella, stated: “The Supreme Court verdict on the Glivec case might be the turning point for Indian R&D. The SC verdict on Glivec will be a very important signal and I hope that we would then see an implementation and encouragement for investment in research. It is important to see how the judgement, will impact the other practices of the patent offices. At some point, however, if the decision favours innovation then I definitely see investment into R&D coming to the country.”