Cipla, Roche Settle Cancer Drug Patent Case
Cipla informed the apex court that it has decided to withdraw the case.
Drug manufacturer Cipla Ltd. on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that it had reached a settlement in a lung cancer drug patent case with Swiss pharma major Roche Holdings AG.
Cipla informed the apex court that it has decided to withdraw the case. Both the companies reached a settlement on May 30.
The bench of Justice RK Agarwal and Justice SK Kaul allowed Cipla to withdraw the petition in the wake of this settlement.
Cipla had filed a petition challenging the High Court’s November 27, 2015 order holding that it had infringed Roche’s patent in a lung cancer drug Erlocip. However, after the May 30 settlement, Cipla moved the apex court seeking to withdraw the Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed against the 2015 decision.
A division bench of the high court had held that Cipla’s Erlocip, was one polymorphic form of the erlotinib hydrochloride compound, which may exist in several forms, and Roche’s patent claim was not limited to any one such version.
While Cipla’s Erlocip, launched in 2008, costs Rs 1,600 per tablet, Roche’s Tarceva cost Rs 4,800 per tablet. Roche was granted the patent in India for erlotinib hydrochloride on February 23, 2007.
The high court had also imposed a cost of Rs 5 lakh on Cipla. The bench then remanded the case to the single judge for rendition of Cipla’s accounts for determination of profits from sale of Erlocip.
The verdict of the division bench had come on the pleas of Cipla and Roche, both of which had challenged the single judge’s order of September 7, 2012. The single judge, in his order, had held that Cipla was not infringing Roche’s patent, and had refused to grant any injunction against the Indian company.
The single judge had also refused to revoke the patent of the Swiss company as sought by Cipla.
With inputs from PTI.