[Ip-health] [Times of India] Mashelkar draws health activists' ire

[Achal Prabhala]

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
--
--
[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]

The Times of India Online
Printed from timesofindia.indiatimes.com > India Mashelkar draws health act=
ivists' ire
            Nitin Sethi
            [ 24 Feb, 2007 0242hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]


            NEW DELHI: There's bad plagiarism and there's good. And those a=
rguing against the first are waving the second as a major triumph.

            Former CSIR chief R A Mashelkar's verbatim insertion of argumen=
ts from a pro-industry research paper into his report on the tenability of =
the Indian Patents Act has public health activists up in arms but the one b=
y Philippines has them smiling with the argument that it blows the bottom o=
ut of the former's contention that the Act does not conform to TRIPS.

            Mashelkar may be on a weak wicket now. The Philippines governme=
nt has pinched the contentious clause from the Indian Patents Act into its =
patent regime. Given its own robust generic drugs industry, the action by t=
he tiny country, it is argued, demonstrates that the clause is compatible w=
ith the international regime.

            Contrary to this, the expert committee headed by the former CSI=
R chief examining if the said clause was tenable in the face of India's com=
mitment to international agreement on patents has vociferously argued that =
it needs to be junked.

            The report, however, is caught now in a wrangle over plagiarism=
 with charges that it backed its arguments against the clause with argument=
s copied verbatim from a research paper, funded by international pharmaceut=
ical groups, and compiled to mobilise opinion in favour of the patents regi=
me and evergreening of old patents.

            'Evergreening' means any small change in an existing drug would=
 enable an extended monopoly to the patent holder. This has emerged as a ma=
jor bone of contention with a strong lobby arguing that it would perpetuate=
 monopolies and jack up drug prices.

            Phillipines has added a chapter in its patents law Act No 8293 =
to provide for the safeguards against pharmaceutical industry procuring pat=
ents on older drugs by merely tweaking the content a bit with no substantia=
l gains in the effectiveness of the medicine.

            The fact that another developing country, with a substantially-=
sized generic drug industry, has adopted a similar clause, public health ac=
tivists believe, reaffirms that the clause is in tune with international TR=
IPS regulations, and that the Mashelkar report is incorrect. Mashelkar has =
now asked the government to let him re-submit the report. The government is=
 yet to respond to his request.

            Mashelkar though continues to defend the report. "We went by th=
e legal opinion of the experts on the technical committee. But in case the =
government asks us to review we shall. Till date, the government has not go=
t back to us on it," he told TOI on Friday. N R Madhava Menon, one of the t=
wo legal experts on the panel too remained defiant.


      http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Mashelkar_draws_health_activists_i=
re/articleshow/1670383.cms
--
[ spacer.gif of type application/octet-stream deleted ]
--