Even as international companies are skeptical about issues relating to Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in India, Natco Pharma Ltd has said that one of its senior officers responsible for the technology transfer of the products has stolen scientific data pertaining to certain high value drugs.

According to a company press release, the official was arrested by the police before somebody could lay their hands on the stolen technologies.

As some of the processes are patented/in the process of registration, the company is actively pursuing investigations into such incidents wherein company officials are involved, who left the company and joined others.

Many pharmaceutical companies were facing similar threats to their intellectual property by some predator companies encouraging the habit of stealing one's own peculiar or unique type of process/technology for the manufacture of high value active pharmaceutical ingredients.

According to the press statement, “what we lose in the theft of technology for a fast and easy money is the strenuous, time-consuming and costly efforts continuously put in by the companies. What the consumer gets is products made out of inferior technology (as stolen technology can never equal to the original technology), often at an irrelevant cost. The solution lies in all the pharmaceutical companies not entertaining stolen technologies and avoiding persons who indulge themselves in these nefarious activities like cancer.

Natco has appealed to the Bulk Drug Manufacturers Association (BDMA) and the Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA) to initiate measures to curb the practice of technology thefts by ensuring that no pharmaceutical company entertains such stolen technologies and prevents entry of persons indulging in such unhealthy practices.

The saddest part, according to the statement, is that many of the technologies developed after spending millions of rupees in setting up world-class research facilities, employing high calibre scientists and painstakingly working for months and years with dedication and commitment, find their way surreptitiously into the hands of greedy companies who have scant respect for such intellectual pursuits.