The Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) has dismissed a review petition filed by Swiss pharma giant F Hoffmann-La Roche (Roche) and OSI Pharmaceuticals against an earlier IPAB order for receiving additional documents from Mylan Laboratories in a patent battle between the pharma companies, relating to Erlotinib hydrochloride, an active ingredient for anti-cancer drug Tarceva.
In a patent battle with Roche and others at IPAB, Mylan Lab had filed a petition for taking on record 12 additional documents to press its case on the ground of non-disclosure of certain vital information by the former. IPAB allowed the plea in its May 2013 order, however, Roche moved the tribunal with a review petition. This was the first case after a large bench of the patent tribunal held recently that it has powers to review its own orders.
Rejecting the review petition, the IPAB bench comprising vice chairman of DPS Parmar-technical member S Usha observed that the only grievance of the review petitioner is that the documents filed at a later stage shall not be taken on record and when it is said to be a belated filing. According to them, the board ought to have given reasons for accepting such delayed documents. ?We think in such a case there is no error. The documents have been taken on record giving an opportunity to the other side to file documents,? the bench said.
Originally, Mylan Lab had filed a plea for revocation of patent registered to Roche and the case after being heard in Delhi high court has now being considered at IPAB. Though Mylan had initially sought revocation on several grounds including non-disclosure, obviousness and others, it later claimed that it was not pressing any of the grounds except the grounds of non-disclosure, and non-furnishing of the information required by Section 8 of the Patents Act. In the grounds of revocation, the petitioner had pleaded that information relating to US patent 221 was not disclosed.
OSI Pharmaceuticals with Pfizer owns Indian patent for Erlotinib hydrochloride, an ingredient for anti-cancer drug Tarceva, registered with them in 2007. Roche and OSI Pharmaceuticals had entered into an agreement wherein Roche has a licence to use, sell and offer for sale the licensed drug Tarceva in India.