The Supreme Court of India will allow a scientist to join the patent case involving Indian drug giant Cipla, which had earlier been found to have violated the Roche ($RHBBY) patent on its Tarceva (erlotinib) cancer drug.
The top court said the Delhi High Court could move ahead with aspects of the case but denied it the ability to pass any final judgments or orders.
That court is trying to devise ways to dispose of the Cipla inventory and what kind of damages Cipla must pay Roche for patent infringement, according to a report in the Financial Express.
In the original ruling, the Delhi High Court allowed Cipla to continuing making its generic copy because Roche's patent was set to expire this March.
The appointment of the scientist is expected to help the court resolve the issue that "Cipla's Erlocip was one polymorphic form of the erlotinib hydrochloride compound, which may exist in several forms, and Roche's patent claim was not limited to any one such version," according to the Financial Express report.
- here's the report from the Financial Express