Bayer Corporation (Bayer) challenged the order(s) of 2012 and 2013 passed by the relevant statutory authority, the Controller of Patents (the Controller), granting a Compulsory License to Natco Pharmaceuticals Limited (Natco) of the drug Nexavar. Bayer developed the drug to treat patients suffering from kidney cancer. In 2008, the Controller granted a patent to Bayer …Read more

In 1998, Novartis AG, a multinational pharmaceutical company based in Switzerland, filed a patent application in India for the beta-crystalline form of imatinib mesylate, a drug used to treat chronic myeloid leukaemia, a type of blood cancer. In 2005, the Chennai Patent office heard patent oppositions to this application, including one filed by the Cancer …Read more

Aventis, a pharmaceutical company, applied for a preliminary injunction against infringement of its patent on its cancer drug Taxotere in order to restrain Cipla, an Indian pharmaceutical company, from importing, manufacturing or selling Cipla’s generic equivalent of the drug. Prior to this, Cipla had applied for revocation of Aventis’ amended patent on a number of …Read more

The petitioners were Kenyan citizens living with HIV/AIDS. They petitioned seeking a declaration that the fundamental rights of life, human dignity and health as protected and envisaged by the Constitution, encompassed access to affordable and essential drugs and medicines, including generic HIV/AIDS drugs. The petitioners also sought a declaration that the Anti-Counterfeit Act, 2008 and …Read more

The Petitioners were citizens of Kenya living with HIV. They claimed that provisions of the Anti-Counterfeiting Act, 2008 (the Act) severely restricted access to affordable, essential medicines, including generic medicines for HIV-related diseases, in violation of their fundamental rights to life, dignity and health protected under articles 26(1), 28 and 43 of the Constitution of …Read more

Petitioners were indigent Kenyan citizens that were infected with HIV/AIDS. Petitioners depended on antiretroviral drugs for treatment of their condition; and, because of their poverty, relied on a program administered by the Kenyan government and an NGO for the provision of these drugs at little or no cost. This program could afford to operate as …Read more

Metoclopramide is a drug commonly used to treat digestive tract problems such as diabetic gastroparesis and gastroesophageal reflux disorder. In 1980, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first approved metoclopramide tablets under the brand name Reglan. Generic manufacturers also began producing metoclopramide five years later. Over its usage history, evidence accumulated that long-term metoclopramide use …Read more

Pharmacies, “as a matter of business routine and federal law, receive prescriber-identifying information when processing prescriptions.” This “[k]nowledge of a physician’s prescription practices—called prescriber-identifying information,’” enables marketers representing pharmaceutical drug manufacturers (Detailers) to better “ascertain which doctors are likely to be interested in a particular drug and how best to present a particular sales message.” …Read more

This case was an unconstitutionality action brought by the Guatemalan Association of Pharmacists and Chemists et al. challenging the Liberalization of Importation of Medicines Act. The claimants argued that the Act’s elimination of requirements for imported medicines such as expiration dates, instructions in Spanish, and required government testing violated constitutional competition provisions, intellectual property and …Read more

The applicant pharmaceutical company , which marketed cheaper, generic drugs, brought forward a claim against the “Institut national d’assurance maladie-invalidité” (National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance). The lower court referred a question to the Constitutional Court about whether Article 191 of the law concerning compulsory health insurance and benefits violated the principle of equality, …Read more