With the pending Protection and Utilisation of Public Funded Intellectual Property Bill drawing criticism of causing possible adverse impact on drugs research, the Centre may go for a separate bill to protect the public funded research and development of drugs for vital diseases.

The move is being initiated after the Department of Science and Technology (DST) received complaints and criticism that some provisions in the pending bill may adversely affect the research and prices of drugs. Hence a separate bill is being planned to cater to the requirement of research and development so that research on diseases such as malaria, cholera, diabetes, tuberculosis, etc. could be encouraged and promoted, sources said.

Among other things, the provision for promotion of transfer of technology from lab to companies or industry and to ensure access to innovation by all stakeholders for public good has irritated many. It was pointed out that the mandatory patenting of public funded intellectual property and the technology transfer, as provided in the Bill will not promote public good as commercialization of intellectual property will lead to rise in prices of drugs and it would hit the poor really hard. Essential drugs will go out of the reach of the common man who cannot afford to pay market prices, according to the NGOs who took up the issue with the authorities.

Another criticism raised against the bill was about commercialization of intellectual property created out of public funded research and utilization of innovations for raising resources through royalties or income. The area and focus of research may tilt in favour of market driven model rather than the social sector model because the former guarantees more financial gain to the inventor and the recipient from the successful manufacture and marketing of technologies than the latter, it was pointed out.

The inventor may aim at technologies in areas that would be expected to fetch market place profits rather than the social sector good, the driving force being the profit and profit alone. Promoting such a profit oriented motif would give fillip to the tendency to focus on applied research or to develop technologies rather than to concentrate on basic science/academic or other fundamental research to develop models of understanding, according to the NGOs.

Though the NGOs suggested modifications in the pending bill to protect research on diseases, the DST is learnt to have decided to go for a separate bill. "These issues need to be seen in a larger perspective and it would not be appropriate, nor advisable to incorporate any such clauses in the present legislation which falls outside the scope of the Bill. Hence another bills is the only solution," sources said.