The Novartis Case: Victory for the Rights of the People and Defeat for the Monopoly of Multinationals

On April 1, the Supreme Court of India dismissed a lawsuit filed by pharmaceutical giant Novartis, who was trying to bypass Article 3(d) of the Indian Law of Patents in order to misleadingly claim the “invention” of a drug that had been manufactured as a generic already.

An Indian patent law “in favor of the people,” dating back to 1970, had to be changed because of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights World Trade Organization agreement, which was based on the false premise of “invention” and defined by pharmaceutical, agrochemical, seed and biotechnological companies such as Monsanto, Novartis and Syngenta at the time. They are actually part of the same group of companies and seek an absolute monopoly on seeds and medicine in order to maximize profits even as the sick and farmers are dying.

Even though we were forced to change our laws, the powerful Indian movements that work on patents, with the National Working Group on Patent Laws, founded by the late B.K. Keayla, at the helm, managed to define “invention” precisely through Article 3(d). This is the article that Novartis was contesting, claiming a patent on an old anti-cancer drug sold under the brand name Glivec, while evergreening the patent or recycling an old invention and marketing it as new by making only superficial changes.

Through its verdict, the Supreme Court of India adopted a distinction between inventing and evergreening. Indian companies have produced the generic form of the drug and sold it for 8,000 rupees per monthly treatment. Novartis sells its version for 120,000 rupees, putting it out of the reach for the vast majority of Indians.

This case is important because it puts in check the ruthlessness with which the greed of multinational corporations tramples on the rights of individuals. Corporations are patenting traditional knowledge through biopiracy. We have had to fight biopiracy cases for the Neem tree, Basmati rice and wheat. They were also illegitimate patents.

Above all, multinational corporations are claiming patents on seeds and life forms, even if the seeds are not an invention, but rather the result of millions of years of evolution and thousands of years of cultivation by farmers. This is why we launched the Seed Freedom campaign.