India foiled UK’s Pangaea Laboratories bid to patent use of turmeric, pine bark and tea

India in fifth week of July 2015 foiled a British Company’s bid to patent use of turmeric, pine bark and tea for treating hair loss and succeeded in protecting its traditional knowledge.

The UK based company Pangaea Laboratories Limited had filed patent application at European Patent office in February 2011 on a medicinal composition containing turmeric, pine bark and green tea for treating hair loss.

India’s Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL), a unit of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) filed pre-grant opposition along with prior-art evidences. It proved that turmeric, pine bark and green tea, are being used as a treatment for hair loss, since long in Indian systems of medicine like Ayurveda and Unani.

CSIR-TKDL Unit filed evidences from TKDL on 13 January 2014 after the patent application got published on website, pursuant to which the patent application is finally deemed to be withdrawn by the applicant on 29 June 2015.

Recently, CSIR-TKDL also foiled an attempt of Colgate-Palmolive Company to patent a mouthwash formula containing herb (Nutmeg- Jayaphal) extract used in Indian traditional systems of medicine to cure oral diseases.

CSIR-TKDL, headed by Dr. Archana Sharma, submitted proof in the form of references from ancient books in this case, which said the herb and its extracts of Myristica Fragrans were historically used for oral diseases in Indian systems of medicine.

Till date CSIR-TKDL has achieved success in about 200 such cases without any cost.

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