Indian Patent Office Grants Compulsory License To Bayer Drug

Finding that Bayer had failed the requirement to “work” the invention in India, e.g., manufacture and sell at a reasonable price, the Indian Patent Office granted Natco Pharma, an Indian company, a “compulsory license” to make, use and sell  a generic version of the anti-cancer drug Sorifenib. If your client/company/institution has an Indian patent on a drug, don’t forget to fill out the working forms that your associate should remember to send to you. However, this decision does not answer the question of whether or not an Indian company could seek approval to market a drug not yet approved by your client or its licensee in, say, the US or the EU, if the Indian company went through the NDA process in India. I know this sounds unlikely but, at the least, this decision should remind us all to take “working requirements” seriously, particularly for drugs that are moving through the approval processes outside of India.

Natco_vs_Bayer_Decision_of_Controller_of_Patents_Mumbai_9_Mar_2012

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