Japan's Mitshubishi Pharma loses Indian diabetes case

India's patent office dealt a blow to Mitsubishi Pharma by denying the Japanese company's application to patent the new diabetes drug teneligliptin, which will allow generic makers to move ahead with their plans to manufacture and market the drug.

The patent office in Kolkata denied the patent by saying it was "obvious and lacking (an) inventive step."

Teneligliptin was first launched by Glenmark in June and others like Zydus Cadila have also jumped on the bandwagon. India's Lupin, which opposed Mitsubishi's parent application, is also selling linagliptin, which is from the gliptin family.

As FiercePharmaAsia reported in November, the gliptin market in India is heating up with the move Zydus to introduce a low-cost teneligliptin under the name Tenglyn. The company priced its drug at 11 U.S. cents per pill while others in the market were priced at around 65 U.S. cents.

- here's the report from the Times of India

EJ Lane contributed to this report.