More on Mashelkar

Further to controversy on the Mashelkar report on pharma patenting, C.H. Unnikrishnan recently reported:

Almost six months after the second report was submitted, Argentinian intellectual property law expert Carlos M. Correa claimed that its conclusion was based on his report, prepared in 2000 in a different context.

There is an attempt to answer the question: Correa claimed that TEG bases its conclusions on his report. Is it true?

[TEG-->technical experts group]

Of the difference in scope in the reports:

Correa’s report was dealing with the issue of whether it would be TRIPS-compliant for some countries to exclude all pharmaceutical inventions altogether or a set of them, such as essential medicines. But TEG’s mandate was to see as to whether it would be TRIPS-compatible to limit the grant of patent for pharmaceutical substance to new chemical entities or new medical entities, involving one or more inventive steps.

**Currently, Mashelkar chairs the Innovation Council of Reliance Industries Ltd and is head of the National Innovation Foundation.