Author name: 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).

India-USPTO conference on TK & patenting kicks off in New Delhi

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The Financial Express reports that India, the United States Patents & Trademark Office (USPTO) along with representatives of Saarc countries and WIPO are having a three day conference in New Delhi to deal with developing countries concerns in regards the protection of traditional knowledge (TK), genetic resources & folklore – all of them being subjects not adequately covered by TRIPS. Readers may remember that Sumati had, way back in Novemebr 2007, pointed out to an ET article on the efforts […]

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SpicyIP Events: NLSIU Symposium on ‘Challenges to India’s Patent Regime’ being held on April 12th-13th

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A couple of months ago, SpicyIP Events had brought to your attention that the National Law School of India University was organizing a Symposium on ‘Challenges to India’s Patent Regime’ on the 12th-13th of April. Billed as one of the ‘spiciest’ IP events of the year this NLSIU Symposium boasts an excellent line-up of speakers, most of them being the authorities in their respective fields. Keeping in line with the highest traditions of legal debate at the NLSIU this Symposium

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Natco & Compulsory Licenses: Round 3

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Unnikrishnan of the Mint reports that we may see a third compulsory licensing case in the coming days. No prizes for guessing the identity of the applicant. Yes, its Natco once again! Our readers may remember that the two previous applications by Natco were for two anti-cancer drugs being manufactured by Roche and Pfizer. In those two cases Natco had filed for a CL to export to Nepal. This time round however Natco is applying for a CL to manufacture

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Govt. in favour of compulsory licensing only in cases of emergencies

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The ET reports that the Government is in favour of using compulsory licensing only in emergencies. The report quotes a senior official of the DIPP (which controls the patent office) as saying “We are not in favour of CL unless there is an extraordinary problem. There is no point in going in for CL unless there is an epidemic which impacts a large chunk of the population, and needs immediate solution “. When asked whether a disease like cancer qualifies

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Foreign pharma may adopt differential pricing at last

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Unnikrishnan of the Mint recently reported that foreign pharma companies are finally ‘mulling’ over whether to adopt differential pricing for their drugs in India. The foreign drug makers plan to offer these medicines at different tiers of prices for government supply, patient access programmes, hospitals in rural areas and non-profit organizations, said an official with the Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI), an industry body that chiefly represents foreign drug firms present in India. The discussions are at an

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Will the real NGO please stand up?

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The Delhi High Court in its recent March 19thruling on the Roche-Cipla issue had lamented about the fact that it did not have access to any accurate information as to how many patients were affected by lung cancer and how many of them actually had access to Roche’s drug. A lack of quality empirical evidence has been a lamentable feature in all policy debates regarding patents in India. Three days after this judgment of the Delhi High Court a leading

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Big Pharma and neglected diseases

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The BS and the Mint recently carried stories on Pfizer’s announcement that it will focus its R&D efforts on diseases affecting developing countries such as India. As of now Pfizer seeks to target diseases such as cancer, diabetes, neurological disorders and inflammation, with special emphasis on the regional characteristics of the ailments. Pfizer will also work on certain vaccines and other unmet medical needs. However it remains to be seen whether Pfizer actually translates its words into actions or whether

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SpicyIP Tidbit: BBMP seeks to patent construction technology

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The Hindu reports that the BBMP or the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palike is seeking to patent a novel technology which allows it to build an underpass for a fraction of its previous cost. While the usual cost of an underpass is usually Rs. 20 crores the novel technology would reduce costs to a mere Rs. 1 crore! The other huge advantage of these underpasses is that they take significantly lesser time to construct – a huge advantage in congested cities

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SpicyIP Tidbit: Frontline’s interview with Dr. Baltimore

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The Frontline one of India’s last few leftist news magazines’ (The cover story last month was a tribute to the ‘Living Legend‘- Castro, the week after that the cover story was an attack on the ‘Neo-liberal policies‘ of the UPA Govt.) carried a superbly detailed interview of Nobel Laureate David Baltimore. Dr. Baltimore shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Howard Temin and Renato Dulbecco at the young age of 37. At the time, Baltimore’s greatest contribution to

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SpicyIP Tidbit: Cipla wins round one in its battle against Roche

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The much awaited judgment of the Delhi High Court on the issue of temporary injunction in the Roche-Cipla case is finally out. Cipla’s risky strategy has paid off with the Delhi High Court allowing it to continue the manufacture of Erlotinib till a final ruling on the case. The only caveat that the Court attached was that Cipla maintain ‘fair accounts’ of the drugs sold so that it may adequately compensate Roche in case of an adverse final ruling. SpicyIP

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