Most readers of this newspaper would not know what is “beta crystalline form of imatinib mesylate”. Many may take it as one of those jaw-cracking long names that only chemistry majors spell effortlessly and which leave the rest of us reeling. This active ingredient of a cancer drug, sold under the brand name Glivec, however, has morphed into a major newsmaker. This week, Glivec grabbed headlines as the final hearing of a long-running legal dispute over the medicine kicked off at the Supreme Court.