DC: A Missouri professor accused of using foreign graduate students as “slave labor” was sued by the university he previously worked for Tuesday for allegedly stealing and selling a student’s research to a pharmaceutical company.
The University of Missouri Kansas City (UMKC) claims in its suit, obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation, that professor Ashim Mitra stole his graduate student’s, Dr. Kishore Cholkar, work that would deliver drugs to the eye more effectively through nanotechnology. Cholkar thought of the idea as early as 2010 and conducted research in UMKC facilities, but Mitra allegedly sold the idea to a pharmaceutical company in secret.
“The lawsuit filed today claims that Mitra stole UMKC-owned inventions, sold them to industry, assisted those companies in patenting and commercializing them, denied credit to a deserving student and reaped a personal financial windfall – all the while concealing his efforts and denying his involvement,” the school said in a statement to TheDCNF. “UMKC looks forward to vigorously pursuing these claims in court.”
The lawsuit alleges that Mitra made more than “$1.5 million to date” and could potentially earn millions more in royalties after selling Cholkar’s research to pharmaceutical development company Auven Therapeutics Management. read more
Company I worked for 15 years ago had a multi-billion dollar drug based upon nanoparticle delivery. So I’d say there is some potential.
UMKC wants its cut.
They don’t GAF about the student’s idea being stolen; they just wanted to steal it themselves.
Professor should have cut everyone in on the deal and not been such a greedy ass.
Remember the guy who discovered Teflon? Bell Labs (I believe) didn’t give him a dime of the profits from it – which was OK because that was the deal – the agreement signed before he ever discovered anything.
This will fall out the way the contracts were written – as they should.
izlamo delenda est …
“professor Ashim Mitra”. Muslim. All you need to know.
Professor was just giving his lesson on socialism.
Happens everywhere. Fashion, music… What to do what to do.
Kick their asses in court or in the streets, I guess. lol
Mitra’s wife Ranjana was also named in the suit.
Okey-dokes. Indian prof, Indian wife, Indian foreign exchange students, Indian company (Sun Pharma).
Sens the lot of them back to Bangalore and let them duke it out. Enough with using the Welcome mat as a means to rip off the US.
Univ. of Missouri . . . again. Remember Melissa Click?
This was at Boeing in 1964 or maybe Philco-Ford 1965. The inspirational poster showed a paper clip and said “A simple idea. Patent it with us and we’ll give you a Saving Bond”. Yes..an idea worth many millions and you get $50 if you hold the bond for 20 years.
That is the way university research is done. The grad students do the work under their research mentor, but the mentor gets the credit. Also any material created by a professor becomes the property of the institution he/she is employed by. It’s a racket all around.
@Diana – When stupid $hit happens, it’s usually Florida or my state of Missouri.