Indian Government Hopes Bill Will Stimulate Innovation

Abstract

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY The Indian government is preparing to introduce legislation that it hopes will reverse the traditional hands-off attitude at most Indian universities toward commercializing the results of basic research. The proposed bill, a draft of which was obtained by Science , sets out rules that institutions must follow once their scientists make a patentable discovery. In addition to serving as the first such nationwide guidelines, the legislation is meant to send a message to university officials that technology transfer is part of their job. “The idea is to create an environment of innovation,” says Maharaj Kishan Bhan, secretary of the Department of Biotechnology, which helped to draft the bill. Until now, he says, “university administrators [have been] free to encourage or discourage patenting and commercialization efforts. And there are many who believe that industry and academia should be kept miles apart.” ![Figure][1] Off the bench. Manju Ray wants to translate her research into therapies for cancer patients. CREDIT: COURTESY OF MANJU RAY The legislation directs institutions to report patentable discoveries to the funding agency as soon as they come to light and to file patent applications within a year. Institutions and inventors who fail to meet the deadline would forfeit their intellectual-property rights to the agency that funded the research. Institutions must give inventors at least 30% of any revenues from a patent and spend the rest on research. Those rules might have helped biochemist Manju Ray after she developed an experimental drug based on the anticancer properties of methylglyoxal—a metabolic byproduct found in most organisms, including humans. She works at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS) in Kolkata, which took no steps to patent the compound. Finally, Ray agreed to partner with Dabur India Ltd., an Indian pharmaceutical company, making it co-owner of domestic and international patents granted in 2003. But Dabur has since lost interest in the therapy and has been pursuing other candidate drugs. Ray cannot license it to another company without Dabur's approval, and IACS has no financial incentive or authority to get involved. Somenath Ghosh, head of the National Research Development Corp. in New Delhi, which markets technologies developed through public-funded research, expects the bill to pave the way for more governmental support to labs and universities to help with patent filings. But Ghosh and other analysts also wonder whether the government has the resources to carry out its threat to claim patentable discoveries if institutions drag their feet. Even without the bill, the culture at institutions may be changing. Last year, Ray's institute set up a technology-transfer office, which helped Ray file a patent application for a new formulation of her cancer drug. If she receives the patent, she will be able to explore partnerships with other pharmaceutical companies. “I want to forget about the past and look to the future,” she says. The government plans to introduce the bill this spring in Parliament, where it is expected to win swift passage. [1]: pending:yes