Even after three months of the resignation of Dr RA Mashelkar from its chairmanship, the Technical Expert Group (TEG) on Patent Law is still headless, leaving the existence of the committee in disarray. On the one hand the government is waiting for the final report after 'correcting technical inaccuracies' in it, on the other it has not appointed anybody in place of Dr Mashelkar so far.

"We have sent a letter to the chairman of TEG informing that the government is permitting time to change the report. Now, we are awaiting the report," T C James, director, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) told Pharmabiz, indicating that the committee is very much alive.

But the TEG members think otherwise. "No further action has been taken by anybody since Dr Mashelkar's resignation. We haven't received any further official communication from the government on the issue", said Prof N R Madhava Menon, an eminent legal expert and a member of the expert group.

The TEG under the chairmanship of Dr R A Mashelkar, was constituted by the government to decide on the patentability of incremental innovations and live microorganisms for TRIPS compatibility. It submitted its report on December 29 last year, which created a flutter in the pharma industry in the country. A section of the pharma industry accused that the report was made in favour of MNCs. The expert committee withdrew its report on Feb 19 after it was found that 10-12 lines were copied from a paper published by the Intellectual Property Institute of the University Of Oxford, UK.

In the wake of severe criticism, Dr Mashelkar withdrew his report and sought time from the government to rectify the inaccuracies. The government gave three months time to the TEG to rectify the inaccuracies in February this year. But, instead of rectifying the report, Dr Mashelkar surprised everybody by resigning as the chairman of the TEG.

Even though more than three months have passed since then, there has been no headway on the matter.