Manoj Mitta, TNN Feb 22, 2007, 12.46am IST
NEW DELHI: Stung by charges of plagiarism, the R A Mashelkar committee, which had recommended drastic widening of the scope of patentability in India, has taken the unusual step of withdrawing its controversial report.
In a letter dated February 19, Mashelkar, former head of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, requested the commerce ministry to allow the committee to "withdraw the report, re-examine it and resubmit a report, which meets with the requirements of the highest standards."
This followed an article in TOI on February 12 exposing the fact that key excerpts of the Mashelkar committee report submitted in December were reproduced almost verbatim (although without acknowledgement) from a paper published by UK-based, industry-friendly think tank.
In a euphemistic reference to the plagiarism that has come to light, Mashelkar said: "After submission of the report, it has been found that there are certain technical inaccuracies in the report that have inadvertently crept in."
But he blamed "a drafting sub-group" for the lapses. "These were unfortunately not detected in time and, therefore, not corrected," Mashelkar claimed, in his letter written after consulting the other technical experts in the committee.
Taking "full responsibility for this unfortunate development," Mashelkar tendered his "unconditional apologies for the inconvenience that has been caused to the government."
Recalling that there had been "twelve high-powered Mashelkar committees so far over the past two decades" dealing with different scientific issues without provoking any such controversy, he said rather plaintively, "This has happened for the first time."
The plagiarism angle has reinforced the allegation made by public health activists that the Mashelkar committee toed the line of multinational pharmaceutical industry by recommending that India needed to strengthen the patent law further than it did in 2005 to meet its obligations under the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).
In a recommendation that could bring more pharmaceutical drugs under patent and thereby hike their prices, the committee said that provision limiting grant of patents to "new chemical entities only" was not compliant with TRIPS.
This has raised fears among its critics of "evergreening" under which a manufacturer extends his monopoly over patented drugs indefinitely by passing off a minor change as an inventive step.
Another far-reaching conclusion of the Mashelkar committee is that India's current policy of keeping all micro organisms outside the purview of patents was violative of TRIPS.
This could provide a boost to genetically modified organisms in the country despite all the questions over their efficacy and environment repercussions.
