Indian Court Bars Company from Selling Generic Version of Merck Drug

By Suryatapa Bhattacharya 

NEW DELHI--The Delhi High Court barred an Indian company from selling generic versions of a popular diabetes treatment Wednesday in a rare victory for foreign pharmaceutical companies on intellectual property rights.

The court ruled that Indian generic-drug company, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals could no longer sell its version of Merck & Co.'s Januvia.

The drug is one of the world's most popular treatments for Type 2 diabetes, and generated $3.9 billion in sales last year for Merck.

Glenmark said it was evaluating its legal options. The company had been selling generic versions of Januvia in India called Zita and Zita Met.

Merck's India unit filed a lawsuit in 2013, accusing Glenmark of infringing on the drug's patent for the drug's main ingredient: sitagliptin, which works by enhancing the body's ability to lower blood sugar levels.

The ruling prevents Glenmark from selling, distributing, advertising and exporting drugs containing this ingredient, according to the Delhi High Court judgment. The court also ordered Glenmark to pay an undefined portion of Merck's legal expenses.

Merck's lawyer, Pravin Anand, said the order was a legal victory for foreign drug companies. India's patent offices and courts have often declined to defend patents accepted in other countries.

Some of the world's largest pharmaceutical firms like Novartis AG, Bayer AG and Roche Holding AG, have fought battles to defend their drugs against Indian generic versions. Novartis lost its fight to protect leukemia treatment Gleevec from local competition in 2013.

Critics of foreign drug companies say that they are too eager to prolong their patents and that they drive up prices for medicine, putting them out of reach of many Indians.

India has faced criticism from the U.S. for its perceived lax patent protections.

"This decision will go down well in the U.S. It says that Indian courts are not influenced by Indian companies and due process was followed," said Dilip Shah, secretary-general of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance, a trade group.

More such decisions would be bad news for India, said Surajit Pal, a pharmaceutical analyst at Prabhudas Lilladher, a Mumbai-based brokerage. Most Indians can't afford patented medications, he said.

India has one of the highest diabetic populations in the world, but diabetes treatments remain relatively expensive. The World Health Organization estimates that a quarter of a family's income can be spent to treat a single family member with the disease, compared with 10% in the U.S.

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October 07, 2015 10:19 ET (14:19 GMT)

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