18 April 2022
EPAM Attorneys Continue to Successfully Defend the Interests of Novartis in a Case Involving Unfair Competition on the Part of the Distributor of the Generic Nilotinib Drug

On April 18, 2022, the Ninth Arbitrazh Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the Moscow Arbitrazh Court, which ruled in favour of the international pharmaceutical corporation Novartis, which was represented by the legal team of EPAM. The court rejected Mammoth Pharm's demands to cancel both the decision and order of the Federal Antimonopoly Service in a high-profile case of unfair practices of a generic drug distributor who was producing generics in violation of a patent.

In July 2021, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) of Russia declared the actions of Mammoth Pharm, which copied pharmaceutical company Novartis’s drug and launched the sale of its own generic, to be unfair competition. Mammoth Pharm was ordered to stop selling the drug and to forfeit the illegally obtained revenue from the government contracts to Novartis.

The decision of the FAS led to negotiations for the settlement of Mammoth Pham’s claim for the issuance of a compulsory license to the Novartis patent for the production of Nilotinib. As a result, the parties have entered into a settlement agreement, the opponent waived the requirements for the patent and agreed not to violate the exclusive rights of the client.

Despite the settlement of the dispute with Novartis and the actual recognition of the violation, Mammoth Pharm continued to challenge the FAS decision and order in court and filed an appeal.

The project is led by a joint team of lawyers of competition and litigation practices: Senior Associates Olga Denchenkova and Alexey Artemenko, Partners Anna Numerova, Vera Rikhterman and Valery Eremenko.

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Anna Numerova

Anna Numerova

Moscow