Prashant Reddy

Prashant Reddy

T. Prashant Reddy graduated from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore, with a B.A.LLB (Hons.) degree in 2008. He later graduated with a LLM degree (Law, Science & Technology) from the Stanford Law School in 2013. Prashant has worked with law firms in Delhi and in academia in India and Singapore. He is also co-author of the book Create, Copy, Disrupt: India's Intellectual Property Dilemmas (OUP).

Copyright

The Government Moots Proposal to Amend Sports Broadcasting Law – Deadline for Comments is December 31, 2018

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Since the dawn of private sports broadcasting in the early nineties, private broadcasters and Prasar Bharti, which is the government owned broadcaster, have been constantly squabbling over the sharing of broadcast signals of international cricket matches featuring Team India which is officially owned by the Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI).  Boria Majumdar has a very interesting account of these early battles in this article published in Open. These disputes often end up before the Supreme Court which in…


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Drug Regulation

The Hindu Discovers That Indian Patients Have Not Been Informed of Bedaquiline’s Side-Effects

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For the last 6 months, we’ve seen The Hindu reporting on bedaquiline, Janssen’s new experimental TB drug from various angles. There was the first set of reportage by Vidya Krishnan, which was mostly incorrect and possibly fake news. Then there was the opinion editorial by R. Prasad, a correspondent at the paper, who while noting the pending Phase III trials for the drug, recommended ramping up access to the drug. I’m not sure whether it is regular for health reporters…


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Drug Regulation

The Ethics of Early Access to Experimental Drugs Like Bedaquiline That Have Not Yet Completed Phase III Trials

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Following my criticism of an opinion piece in the Hindu by R. Prasad for his recommendation to ramp up access to bedaquiline without tackling the ethical issues regarding the flawed informed consent form for bedaquiline, he published a news report in yesterday’s Hindu on the ethics of denying early access to bedaquiline. Titled ‘Unethical to withhold bedaquiline while waiting for Phase III results’, he cites Dr. Karin Weyer at the World Health Organisation (WHO) who claims that it would be…


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Copyright Others

Delhi High Court Once Again Tackles the Issue of IP in Customer Lists – Delivers a Solid Judgment in Favour of Employees

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An issue which keeps popping up in Indian litigation is whether it is possible for employers to restrain former employees from using customer lists after leaving employment. These legal actions are usually based in copyright law or contractual agreements that have clauses on confidentiality and restraints against post-employment competition. In a recent judgment by Justice Endlaw, in the case of Navigators Logistics Ltd v. Kashif Qureshi & Ors. the above issues are decided in favour of former employees in a…


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Drug Regulation

The Ministry of Health Is Yet to Communicate with J&J on the ASR Hip Implant Issue

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For the last few months, the Indian media has been doggedly tracking the J&J hip implant scandal. To briefly recap the main facts, the company sold its new ASR hip implants to around 4,700 patients between 2006 and 2010. Around 2010, J&J decided to withdraw the implants from the market because of quality issues with the product that threatened patient safety. One of the issues debated in the press is the need to compensate the patients. After unprecedented patient activism…


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Drug Regulation

Yet Another Journalist Pitches for Ramping Up Access to Bedaquiline before Phase III Trials, Without a Mention of the Flawed Consent Forms

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In a column published on September 4, 2018 the Hindu’s science editor R. Prasad has explained why India should ramp up access to bedaquiline to treat MDR-TB. Unlike most of the other cheerleaders for bedaquiline, Prasad thankfully points out that the drug demonstrated higher cardiotoxicity and that Phase IIb trials experienced more deaths and that the Phase III trials are yet to be completed. He however concludes that the recent revision of the WHO treatment guidelines on bedaquiline, that was…


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Drug Regulation

The Bedaquiline Patient Consent Form in India & the Perils of Single Issue ‘Access to Medicine’ Activism

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‘Access to medicine’ activists at MSF are kicking off yet another campaign to increase access to Janssen’s new drug bedaquiline. Based on a new study and a new set of guidance from the WHO, the activists want the government to give all multi-drug resistant TB patients in India access to bedaquiline. A recent piece published on India Spend, with “support from MSF”, interviews the lead author of an earlier study of bedaquiline in light of a more recent study in the…


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Copyright

The State of Indian Copyright Societies (And Assorted Bodies) After the Copyright (Amendment) Act, 2012

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It has now been over 6 years since the revolutionary Copyright (Amendment) Act, 2012 was passed by Parliament. As most of our readers may remember, the background to that amendment was corruption in Indian copyright societies and allegations of patently unfair contracts being thrust onto Indian composers and lyricists. The amendments were aimed at changing the regulatory framework for Indian copyright societies and inserting statutory safeguards to protect songwriters and composers. We’ve covered the background of those amendments extensively on…


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Patent

Did the Hindu’s Reporter Publish Fake News about Dr. Soumya Swaminathan Recommending a Compulsory License for Bedaquiline?

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In July I had written about how I had filed applications under the Right to Information Act, 2005 seeking information from the government regarding assertions made in a news report by Vidya Krishnan of the Hindu in March of this year. A copy of the Hindu’s report was appended to my RTI application. In her report, Krishnan had mentioned that the government had requested Janssen and Otsuka for voluntary licenses for their new TB drugs, bedaquiline and delaminid and that…


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Drug Regulation

Special Report: The Judicial and Policy Quackery Behind the Regulatory Restrictions on Oxytocin

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Long read There has been panic and alarm amongst doctors, especially gynecologists, since the announcement by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MOHFW) on June 27, 2018 that only one public sector undertaking, Karnataka Antibiotics & Pharmaceutical Ltd. (KAPL) would be authorized to manufacture and supply oxytocin for the Indian market from July 1, 2018. The drug oxytocin is considered a critical hormone for maternal healthcare since it is used for inducing labour and more importantly, to control bleeding…


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