[Ip-health] UAEM Calls On Indian Government To Reconsider Legislation Regarding The Patenting Of Publicly-Funded Research

[Ethan Guillen]

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UAEM CALLS ON INDIAN GOVERNMENT TO RECONSIDER LEGISLATION REGARDING THE
PATENTING OF PUBLICLY-FUNDED RESEARCH
Legislation Threatens Access to Medicines and Future Innovative Research



Berkeley, CA - Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM), an
international student advocacy group, today called on the Indian government
to reconsider legislation that would govern the patenting of the results of
publicly funded-research including publicly-funded medical research.  The
goals of the legislation are unclear and as currently written, the bill
would likely harm access to medicines and impede the ability of scientists
to conduct innovative research.



Proponents of the Indian bill claim it will help India to commercialize
publicly-funded research by encouraging research institutions to seek
patents. UAEM today issued a white paper raising questions about the impacts
of university patenting in the United States under the Bayh-Dole Act while
offering analysis of the Indian bill. The Indian bill is modeled after the
Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, which encouraged research institutions to seek
patents and commercialize discoveries made through publicly-funded research.
While patenting has risen since the passage of Bayh-Dole, it has also
expanded into areas of basic research where patents prevent other research
from using basic tools to conduct life-saving research.



Perhaps even more troubling, Bayh-Dole and the Indian Act remove
publicly-funded innovations from the public sphere and permit monopoly
pricing on publicly-funded products without any true safeguards to protect
the public interest. These steps have the potential to block millions from
accessing medicines developed from research carried out with public funds.



"The Indian Act threatens to replicate all the failures of Bayh-Dole, but
likely with more damaging consequences," said Ethan Guillen, Executive
Director of UAEM. "We urge the Indian government to open debate on this
legislation to the public and reconsider whether to adopt US-style
legislation whose value in the US has been brought into question."



While Bayh-Dole included several weak safeguards to protect access in the
interest of public health, a draft of the Indian IP Bill, which had been
kept secret from public scrutiny until recently, have excluded even those
ineffective access provisions.  The Indian IP Bill was approved by the
Indian Union Cabinet on October 31 and is now being considered by
Parliament.



The white paper is available at http://www.essentialmedicine.org/bayh-dole/.



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About UAEM

Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) is a coalition of
students at over 40 top research institutions across the United States,
Canada and United Kingdom.  UAEM's mission is to ensure that people in
developing countries have access to medicines developed in universities and
that university medical research addresses to the needs of the majority of
the world's population.  As an organization which values innovation, we work
to empower students to find new ways to improve access to health throughout
the world.



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