Indian Patent Experts Withdraw Opinion

R . A. Mashelkar, the chairman of a committee that has been studying how to revise India's pharmaceutical patent law, has asked to withdraw a report submitted to the government in late December. Indian press reports say the committee plagiarized a document published in November 2005 by the Intellectual Property Institute, a U.K. think-tank led in part by drug company executives. In an interview with the Hindu newspaper, Mashelkar blamed the plagiarism, a mere "eight to 10 lines," on drafting work performed by a subgroup. The December report advised the government to further tighten the patent rules India adopted in 2005 (C&EN, Jan. 29, page 29).