Roche Need to Defend Post-Grant Opposition

Indian Patent No. 198952 covering Roche’s biotech drug Pegasys (pegylated interferon alfa-2a) for the treatment of hepatitis C has been opposed by the Mumbai-based biotech drug manufacturer Wockhardt within the statutory period of post-grant opposition under section 25(2) of the Patents Act, 1970. The post-grant opposition is likely to take place at the Chennai Patent Office where the patent was issued against the mail-box Application No. 1032/MAS/1997 claiming earliest priority from the US provisional application No. 60/018,834 filed May 31, 1996 for which US Patent No. 7,201,897 issued on April 10, 2007. This would probably the first post-grant opposition under the amended Patents Act, 1970. The patent is also opposed by the Mumbai-based NGO Sankalp, which challenged the patentability hindsight stating that Pegasys is a mere admixture of known substances and new form of a known substance. Wow all NGOs in India are scientifically backed by such research knowledge that every single patent application filed or patent granted in India for pharmaceutical compound is either mere a new form or mere a combination/ an admixture of known substances. Just thinking when scientists and research scholars working in R&D and research laboratories technically hesitate to quote say statements then how come NGOs gather such technical confidence. I believe if there would have been a patent application for Graphite (polymorphic form of carbon) and diamond (other known polymorphic form of carbon) would already known in India, then NGOs would definitely have filed a pre or post-grant opposition for such application stating that Graphite patent application is a new form of a known substance …