NGOs working on patent issues in the country have asked the government to reject the recommendations of the Mashelkar Committee on the twin issues of 'evergreening of patents' and 'excluding micro-organism from patentability'. Instead, the NGOs have asked the government to accept the recommendations of Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee which has recommended that the patentable pharmaceutical product should be restricted only to 'new drug molecules'.
"Apparently, the recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee should take precedence over those of the Mashelkar Committee on the two issues under consideration, and, therefore, the recommendations of the Mashelkar Committee should be disregarded and appropriate amendments introduced in the amended Patents Act 1970," National Working Group on Patent Law (NWGPL), an NGO of decades of standing, said in its letter to Union commerce minister Anand Sharma.
