Patent court rules in favor of the PA-based company.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Indian patent courts have ruled in favor of US-based biotechnology firm Kibow, upholding its initial patent and affirming that the company’s Renadyl product is safe to be sold in India.
Renadyl, a medical supplement that allows patients with kidney ailments to function without needing to be hooked up to a dialysis machine, was initially granted two patents in 2009. The first of these was for the technology used to create the pill (the product patent), and the second was for the process used to create the pill (the process patent).
Earlier this year, however, the process patent came under scrutiny by LaRenon Healthcare Pvt. Ltd., an Ahmedabad-based competitor who filed a complaint with India’s Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB).
The LaRenon filing caused IPAB to invalidate the process patent but uphold the product patent, which is far more valuable because it disallows competitors from making a copy of that item and protects the intellectual value of the final product.
In a press release announcing the IPAB verdict, Kibow claims that LaRenon filed the patent complaint against them because Kibow filed an infringement suit against LaRenon, which was dismissed by the Madras High Court for “procedural irregularities.” Now that the courts have verified their product patent, Kibow plans to re-file their lawsuit.
The news that IPAB has upheld the product patent in favor of Renadyl represents a good sign for Kibow Biotech, which hopes to now make its long-awaited entrance into the Indian market. India is the number one market worldwide for dietary supplements, meaning the Kibow stands to make a significant amount of money in the country.
According to the Probiotic Association of India, the country’s probiotic market has been growing at an annual rate of 22.6%, and is expected to hit around $8 million by 2015.
LaRenon, which plans to appeal the IPAB verdict, has been producing a similar product called Cudo, which has been in India for some time now. Cudo sells for Rs. 4,500 for a bottle of 30 pills, while Renadyl is expected to sell for Rs. 5,000 for a bottle of 40 pills.
The Newtown Square, Pennsylvania-based company was founded in 1997 by Dr. Natarajan Ranganathan, who is currently its managing director. According to the company’s literature, Kibow “specializes in research, development and commercialization of probiotic dietary supplements adhering to US FDA and FTC regulations.”
Their Renadyl product is currently sold in the US and Canada, and has met with patent approval in Australia, China, Japan, and Korea.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com