The lawsuit against Ashim Mitra, formerly of the Department of Pharmacy, University of Missouri, Kansas City alleged that his action was an act of defrauding the university.
The charges which was brought against Mitra on Tuesday 17th December 2019 stated further that he secretly sold the student research to Auven Therapeutics Management, a pharmaceutical company in US Virgin Islands which later resold it oversea to an Indian company, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries for the sum of $40m. Already Professor Mitra has pocketed the sum of $1.5m and has a potential of earning up to $10m in royalties in the future.
In the lawsuit which was before Federal District Court, Kansas City, the university argued that the money rightfully belong to them because Kishore Cholkar, the students who developed the pharmaceutical invention was an employer of the university at the time, claiming Cholkar was serving as graduate research assistant in the University of Missouri, Kansas City.
Cholkar was able to develop more efficient way to deliver drug to the eyes using Nanotechnology. The invention is said to be a billion dollars drug.
Other defendants in the lawsuit were Mitra wife, Ranjan; Mitra company, Mitra Consulting Service Inc; Auven Therapeutics Management and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries.
Professor Mitra in response to this allegation said that it is the university that is trying to cash in on his work knowing that the product he said he developed is ready to be marketed.
Mitra officially retired from the service of the University of Missouri March this year to formed his own own company.