India's patent office has revoked the patent of Boehringer Ingelheim on emphysema treatment Spiriva after a challenge from local firm Cipla that claimed it lacked an investigative step and demonstrated therapeutic efficacy under the country's 3(d) section of the patent law.
"BI's Indian Patent relating to tiotropium bromide monohydrate had been previously granted and all other requirements of patentability had been confirmed by the patent office," a company spokeswoamn said.
"BI will be evaluating carefully the basis for the recent decision once the detailed reasons thereof are available."
Spiriva is one of the world's best-selling drugs.
The patent revocation comes two years after Novartis ($NVS) lost a patent on cancer-drug Glivec/Gleevec in India and Bayer earlier had lost protection on Nexavar.
- here's the story from Times of India