To remove "technical inaccuracies" on patent law issues
NEW DELHI:
The Government has permitted a Technical Expert Group to remove "technical inaccuracies'' from the controversial Mashelkar report on patent law issues, Minister of State for Industries Ashwani Kumar said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
The former chief of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), R. A. Mashelkar, has been accused of plagiarising the recommendations of a study backed by multinational pharmaceutical companies and presenting them as his own in the report. He and four others were asked to study two key issues that were objected to by the Left Parties while agreeing to help approve the Patents Bill.
Mr. Kumar said following reports in the media of plagiarism, Dr. Mashelkar had sought the Government's approval to "withdraw, re-examine and resubmit the report [so that it] meets with the requirements of the highest standards. The Government has allowed the TEG to remove the technical inaccuracies in the report.''
However Left parties, experts and the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance wanted the Government to reject the report because "it dresses up MNC interest as national interest.'' They favoured a Joint Parliamentary Committee to examine the two issues — limiting pharma patents to a chemical entity or in case of substantial improvements and excluding micro organisms from the patents regime.
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