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Dec 9, 2025
Mint Explainer: Does India need special courts for complex drug patent wars?
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MUMBAI : On 2 December, the Delhi high court allowed domestic drugmaker Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd to manufacture the blockbuster weight-loss injection semaglutide, for which global pharma giant Novo Nordisk holds the patent in India.
While Dr Reddy's can't sell the drug domestically until Novo's patent expires in March 2026, it can export it to countries where the Danish drugmaker does not have patent protection.
Given the order has significant implications for India's domestic pharma landscape, dotted with patent litigations between the country's generic players and innovators, Mint explains how Indian courts rule on complex patent disputes.
In May 2025, Novo Nordisk filed a patent-infringement suit against Dr Reddy's and contract manufacturer OneSource Specialty Pharma, alleging that the two were locally producing large quantities of semaglutide despite the drug being protected by patent until March 2026, and sought an injunction to stop them.
Dr Reddy's argued that the innovator's patent lacks novelty and inventive step, being similar to a previously filed patent, and hence can be challenged.
Another Indian generics player, Natco Pharma Ltd, sued Novo in August over semaglutide, claiming that its version does not infringe the innovator's device or process patents.
The single-judge bench of Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora rejected Novo's plea to restrain Dr Reddy's from manufacturing and exporting the drug to countries where the healthcare giant doesn't have patent protection.
The court found that Dr Reddy's had raised a credible challenge to Novo's suit patent (IN'697), pointing out that the compound had already been disclosed in an earlier genus patent (IN'964), which expired in 2024, indicating "evergreening" or "double patenting" -- processes through which innovator companies often attempt to extend their monopoly on a drug.
However, the court clarified that Dr Reddy's could not sell the drug domestically until the patent expiry, noting that it co
