Natco Pharma opposes Indian patent for Gilead’s hepatitis drug

Mumbai-based Natco Pharma Ltd has formally asked the Indian patent office to deny US drugmaker Gilead Sciences Inc's new hepatitis C drug Sovaldi a patent in India, according to a Reuters report citing sources.

If Natco is successful, the move could clear the way for the Indian company to launch a cheap generic version of the drug, whose high price has raised a controversy in Western markets as well.

Gilead, whose medicine has been hailed by doctors as a breakthrough in treating the liver-destroying disease, has come under fire over its product's $1,000 per pill price tag in the United States.

India's patent laws allow a third party to dispute the validity of a pending patent application. Natco has filed a so-called "pre-grant opposition" with the Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trademarks, said the source.

It was not clear when Natco filed the opposition and Reuters could not immediately obtain a copy of the filing.

Natco chief executive Rajeev Nannapaneni declined to comment. Officials at Gilead and at the patent department in Mumbai were not immediately available for comment, the report said.

Natco has opposed the patent on the same grounds as New York-based Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge (I-MAK), arguing that Sovaldi is not "inventive" enough, its sources told Reuters.

Sovaldi is the first among a bunch of new hepatitis C drugs that have been shown to raise cure rates and cut treatment duration without the side-effects of current injection-based treatment regimes.