Novartis moves court against Roche seeking Rs 1565 crore overpaid amount in patent licensing pact

New Delhi: Accusing Roche of illegally pocketing fee from a 16-year-old patent licensing contract, Novartis has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in California, later transferred to federal court, seeking to return USD 210 million (over Rs 1565 crore) in alleged overpayments.

Novartis claimed that for years it paid Roche's U.S. Genentech unit tens of millions of dollars as part of a patent licensing agreement that began in 2005. Novartis eventually discovered that it had overpaid by approximately USD 210 million due to an error.

The dispute, launched by Novartis in California state court but recently shifted to federal court, stems from a 2005 deal requiring U.S.-based Chiron Corp to make payments to Roche's U.S. Genentech unit for use of its intellectual property, reports Reuters.

In 2006, Novartis bought Chiron, a maker of biological drugs and vaccines, and continued making payments to Roche as it developed products like the inflammation drug Ilaris, with a revenue of roughly USD 900 million annually, and the psoriasis drug Cosentyx, Novartis's current top seller at around USD 4 billion annually.