India rejects Novartis bid for patent protection for Glivec.

In a landmark decision with ramifications for all the pharmaceutical majors, India's Supreme Court decided against granting patent protection to Novartis' (NVS) cancer drug Glivec, thus allowing the country's generic drugmakers to continue to sell copies at a lower price. The drug was originally rejected from patent coverage in 2006, and the saga since is the most prominent of several battles determining how much protection foreign companies can get from Indian competitors making generic-versions of their products.