Can't bar Roche from filing suit preventing Cadila from 'Vivitra' launch
HC
This story was originally published at 18:45 IST on 16 June 2025
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NEW DELHI – The Bombay High Court has refused to restrain Roche Products (India) Ltd. from filing a suit that would prevent Cadila Healthcare Ltd. from launching and marketing its 'Vivitra' drug, a biosimilar of Roche's cancer drug 'Trastuzumab'. Rejecting Cadila Healthcare's plea against Roche, the high court said a suit cannot be filed on the basis of an apprehension that legal proceedings would be initiated in future.
The petition by Cadila Healthcare does not indicate any "cause of action" that there will be Roche Products' interference with the launch and marketing of a similar drug, said the high court. Admittedly, Cadila Healthcare's suit rests entirely on a mere apprehension that Roche Products and related companies might interfere with the cancer drug's launch and marketing, said the court.
In 1990, Genentech Inc. had developed the biological drug 'Trastuzumab', which was approved for the treatment of certain kinds of cancer. The drug was manufactured by F. Hoffman-La Roche AG and has been imported and marketed in India by Roche Products since 2002. However, Roche Products did not have a patent for the biological drug Trastuzumab in India.
In 2014 and 2015, Roche Products had filed suits in the Delhi High Court against certain manufacturers who had launched their version of Trastuzumab. In 2015, when Cadila Healthcare was in the process of launching a drug named 'Vivitra' claiming it to be a biosimilar of Roche Products' 'Trastuzumab', it filed a suit in the high court against the latter for the injunction. Cadila Healthcare feared that Roche Products would file a suit and obstruct the former company from manufacturing and selling the biosimilar versions of 'Trastuzumab'. End
Reported by Surya Tripathi
Edited by Ashish Shirke
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