India has denied an appeal by Roche ($RHHBY) on a patent claim for eye infection treatment Valcyte for AIDS patients, the Economic Times reports. Now-Sun Pharmaceutical Industries-owned Ranbaxy Laboratories once had U.S. FDA marketing rights for valganciclovir but lost them as its manufacturing woes escalated. The Indian Patent Office said Roche was refused a patent because the formulation lacked an inventive step and therefore was at odds with Section 3(d) of the Indian Patent Act. The case stems from 2010 when India approved the manufacture of local generics of the drug by Cipla, Matrix [now Mylan ($MYL)] and Ranbaxy, the Economic Times said. But Roche appealed to the Intellectual Property Appellate Board, which again rejected its claims. Roche joins a list of other multinationals in failing to secure patents in India for major drugs with Celgene ($CELG) getting denied on Abraxane in June. But in a surprise, Bristol-Myers Squibb's ($BMY) patent on Sprycel notched up a court win in July. Story