Frustrated with patent challenges, Novartis has put its R&D activities in India on the back burner, The Economic Times reports. Chief executive Dan Vasella, who was in Mumbai to attend a Pepsico board meeting, tells the paper that intellectual property protection in India is not what it ought to be.

“In principle you can discover in India, you can do research. There has been some progress on the protection of intellectual property but its not up to the standard that I would expect to make an investment into discovery led research,” Vasella tells the paper.

He adds that Novartis’ recent decision to invest $1 billion in China and not India was not driven by its bad experience with its Gleevec cancer drug in India but a friendler investment environment in China. Novartis, you may recall, has been fighting a legal tussle for the past four years over Gleevec patents. This is not the first time Vasella has snubbed India over the Gleevec battle (see here).

Novartis was denied a patent by Bombay and Madras High Courts which prompted the company to move to the Supreme Court, the paper writes and adds, that, according to Vasella, the Supreme Court verdict on the Gleevec case might be the turning point for Indian R&D.

“There is a significant differences between India and China - in the political system, in the decision making processes, in the complexities of the processes and in the continuity. I think India has potential but things take longer to get done. It may come as a surprise but China has made tremendous progress in IP and is enforcing IP in pharmaceuticals.”

“The Supreme Court verdict on Gleevec will be a very important signal and I hope that we would then see an implementation and encouragement for investment in research. It is important to see how the judgement, will impact the other practices of the patent offices. At some point, however, if the decision favors innovation then I definitely see investment into R&D coming to the country.”

“There is a significant differences between India and China - in the political system, in the decision making processes, in the complexities of the processes and in the continuity. I think India has potential but things take longer to get done. It may come as a surprise but China has made tremendous progress in IP and is enforcing IP in pharmaceuticals,” he tells the Times.

“IP is very fundamental to our business and any investment we make without it is a no go. Now Indian companies are also investing in research and I believe they would create something more of an intellectual basis.”