Mashelkar told to clarify stand on patents report

NEW DELHI: RA Mashelkar’s report on whether India erred on its patent law, is getting curiouser and curiouser. The government now wants the former chairman of the expert group to clarify if he stands by the committee’s controversial conclusion that India would be wrong to restrict patents only to scientific breakthroughs in medicine.

Before considering whether to accept the report or not, the government is keen to know Mr Mashelkar’s views, it is understood. Mr Mashelkar told ET he has opted out of the group and would not like to comment. However, according to sources, Mr Mashelkar apparently stands by the panel’s conclusions.

When Mr Mashelkar recently informed the government that the panel was withdrawing the report due to ‘technical inaccuracies’, the government asked the panel to let it know what the technical inaccuracies were. The government is apparently not in a position to explicitly ask if the ex-chairman of the panel still favours the recommendation that India would violate a WTO deal on patent protection if patents are restricted to new chemical entities (NCEs). The question of accepting or rejecting the report would arise only after this is clarified.

Once a recommendation is submitted to the government, the committee ceases to exist. Mr Mashelkar’s quitting from the committee, therefore, is not of much consequence, according to a source. “I opted out of the committee as I was being personally targeted by some, who questioned my integrity. This is not acceptable to me as nothing is as dear to me as my reputation,” Mr Mashelkar said. The commerce ministry has to meet its commitment to Parliament that it would appoint an expert panel to see if India can tighten its patent laws further and restrict patents only to NCEs.