Corporate legal cases kept Delhi HC busy in 2018

New Delhi: Corporate legal cases saw companies from various sectors including telecom, aviation, banking and agro knocking on the doors of the Delhi High Court for relief in 2018. In the year gone by, the pharma sector also witnessed an ugly legal fight between the former promoters of healthcare major Ranbaxy –Malvinder and Shivinder Singh –and Japanese company Daiichi Sankyo.

The high court took tough stands, ranging from freezing of bank accounts, ordering personal appearance in court and partial payment of an arbitration award of Rs 3500 crore, against the brothers, who later split and one of them claimed to be physically thrashed by the other.

The tough times for the pharma sector was best reflected when the high court restrained online sale of medicines –both on prescription and otherwise –till a rule comes in place to regulate them.

However, the pharma sector had some reason to cheer as the high court set aside the government's ban on private manufacture and sale of Oxytocin drug, used to induce labour and prevent bleeding during child birth. The high court held that confining manufacture of the drug to a state-run entity would result in restricted supply of the potentially life-saving medicine, posing a deleterious effect on pregnant women and young mothers.

The decision came on the plea of the private players which were making and selling the drug till now.

While the private companies making and selling Oxytocin had a cause for cheer, several pharma majors still await the high court's decision in their pleas challenging the Centre's decision to ban over 300 fixed dose

combination drugs.