It's official: India foiled China’s bid to patent pudina

[Avnish Jolly]

It's official: India foiled China’s bid to patent pudina
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Claim-for-patent-for-medicinal-plants-upheld-MOS-health/articleshow/6266964.cms

TNN, Aug 7, 2010,

Read more: It's official: India foiled China’s bid to patent pudina -
India - The Times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Claim-for-patent-for-medicinal-plants-upheld-MOS-health/articleshow/6266964.cms#ixzz0vwkRtOUU

NEW Delhi: The Union health ministry on Friday confirmed a TOI report
on how India foiled China's bid to patent the health benefits of
pudina.

MoS health S Gandhiselvan -- in a written reply to a question raised
in the Lok Sabha on Friday -- said the European Patent Office (EPO)
upheld the Indian claim that the medicinal properties of pudina and
kalamegha were known to the nation's traditional medical system for
treatment of influenza and epidemic fever.

He said a team of examiners in EPO on June 10 considered the evidence
on pre-existing knowledge of ayurveda and unani, and revoked their
earlier plan to grant the patent to M/s Livzon, a major Chinese
pharmaceutical firm.

TOI was the first to report how India foiled a major Chinese bio-
piracy bid to patent the use of medicinal plants pudina (mint) and
kalamegha (andrographis) for the treatment of H5N1 avian influenza or
bird flu.

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), with the
able help of the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL), dug out
formulations from ancient ayurveda and unani texts, like Cakradattah,
Bhaisajya Ratnavali Kitaab-al-Haawi-fil-Tibb and Qaraabaadeen Azam wa
Akmal, dating back to the 9th century, to bolster their claim that
both pudina and kalamegha have been widely used in India for ages to
cure influenza and epidemic fever.

Gandhiselvan said "M/s Livzon Pharmaceutical Group Inc, Guangdong,
filed a patent application No: EP1849473 titled Chinese traditional
medicine composition for treatment of avian influenza, method for
preparation, and application thereof on January 19, 2007. On February
25, EPO after examination conveyed their intention to grant the patent
to M/s Livzon. On April 27, TKDL made a submission to EPO on the basis
of available prior art references from ayurveda and unani text books
the details of four medicinal formulations where pudina and kalamegha
have been used for the treatment of influenza, epidemic fever, stating
that these uses have been known for hundreds of years in the ayurveda
and unani systems of medicine."

TKDL is a collaborative project between CSIR and Union health
ministry's department of Ayush. In 2000, the TKDL expert group
estimated that about 2,000 erroneous patents -- concerning indigenous
systems of medicine -- were being granted annually at the
international level, mainly due to the fact that the country's
traditional medicine knowledge existed in languages like Sanskrit,
Hindi, Arabic, Urdu, Tamil etc that were neither accessible nor
understood by patent examiners abroad.

Consequently, TKDL overcame these language and format barriers by
scientifically converting and making available information in 34
million A4 size pages of the ancient texts in five international
languages, namely, English, Japanese, French, German and Spanish.

Read more: It's official: India foiled China’s bid to patent pudina -
India - The Times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Claim-for-patent-for-medicinal-plants-upheld-MOS-health/articleshow/6266964.cms#ixzz0vwkOKd6N