To evergreen or not to evergreen, that is the question. The lawsuit in India against Novartis has ended with a verdict that imatinib failed in the tests of invention and patentability. A serious verdict, because it is an alert for any potential company interested in evergreening as strategy for patent extension.In this specific case, the costs of evergreening have outweighted the benefits.
I'll avoid any discussion about the ruling, I'll take it as given. I would only suggest to have a look at the remarkable history of gleevec. Unfortunately, the size of public funds involved in the research doesn't appear. It would be great to know it.
Right now I am not able to disentangle the rationale about the threats of the pharmaceutical firm about cancelling the supply of new drugs into this market. It's a mistake, in my opinion. I'll check how they explain it as a CSR strategy.in the next annual report.
