Key drug hearing to continue in March: Indian officials

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2008

NEW DELHI (AFP) — A landmark plea by an Indian drug firm for a "compulsory licence" to sell generic copies of patented drugs to poor countries will continue next month.

India's patent office held hearings on the case, the first of its kind in the country that is the biggest maker of generic drugs, Thursday and Friday but they ended inconclusively.

Natco Pharmaceuticals had applied to make generic copies of Pfizer's Sutent and Roche's Tarceva cancer drugs for export to Nepal, citing the high cost of the branded medicines.

The application is allowed under world trade rules that allow emergency manufacture of critical drugs.

"The hearing will continue next month. We have made our presentation," said Natco official M. Adinarayana. "If we get the licence,...