India has partly suspended patents granted to Roche Holding for its breast cancer drug Herceptin, over issues that the patents had not been filed in accordance with the laid down process.
An article published in Swiss newspaper Schweiz am Sonntag was cited by Reuters, in which a spokesman for the drug manufacturer confirmed that the action was taken by India's Kolkata Patent Office.
Roche spokesman was quoted by the news agency as saying, "I can confirm that the Assistant Controller of Patents at the Kolkata Patent Office has revoked divisional patents of Herceptin and that we are now considering the further course of action."
Since August 2012, the Swiss pharma major had modified its business to suit the Indian needs, while obtaining approvals from the relevant patent authorities.
By joining hands with a local generic drug manufacturer Emcure Pharmaceutics, the company has already slashed the prices of two cancer drugs, including Herceptin and MabThera. Inspite of all these strategies, its patent was partially revoked.
India has revoked many patent of international drug makers citing incremental innovations, and the list includes Roche's hepatitis C drug Pegasys, Pfizer cancer drug Sutent, and Merck & Co asthma treatment aerosol suspension formulation, among others.
Most recently, an Indian drug regulator revoked GlaxoSmithKline's patent granted for breast cancer drug Tykerb, on the same ground that the medicine lacks original innovations.