Who owns the genome?
Battle Pending
By J. Madeleine Nash
April 10, 2000
Web posted at: 12:45 p.m. EDT (1645 GMT)
Pity the beleaguered U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Even
before last week's announcement by Celera, applications for
patents on human genes were pouring in by the thousands. Biotech
firms are seeking rights to genes that might control everything
from the neurotransmitters in your brain to susceptibility to
chronic diseases. The frenzy is rekindling fears that a few
corporations will end up controlling a priceless resource.
Already, skirmishes have broken out between university-based
researchers, many allied with the Human Genome Project, and
small, aggressive firms like Celera, Incyte and Human Genome
Sciences. These companies are churning out patent claims almost
as fast as they sequence our DNA. In 1999 Celera filed
provisionally on no fewer than 6,500 genes and their fragments.
This year Human Genome Sciences won sweeping rights to future
products based on a gene known as CCR5. The protein it encodes
has emerged as a promising target for anti-AIDS drugs. That
rankles Christopher Broder, who, along with a platoon of other
scientists, nailed down the link between CCR5 and AIDS. Why,
Broder asks, should Human Genome Sciences profit from their hard
work?
Even more controversial are attempts to patent not whole genes
like CCR5 but mere snippets, such as ESTs (expression sequence
tags) and SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms). Incyte, for
instance, aims to patent more than a million ESTs. Such patents,
says American University law professor James Boyle, are "fishing
expeditions"--reeling in fish they don't know what to do with.
Gene patents, to be sure, can be useful. Without them, the
private sector wouldn't ante up the billions of dollars needed
to drive biotechnology. But critics feel that far too many
patents are being issued on DNA sequences whose commercial use
is unclear. Though the Patent and Technology Office is trying to
reduce the number of approvals it issues, no one doubts the
courts will eventually have to step in. But now the rush is on
to patent every gene in sight.
--By J. Madeleine Nash. With
reporting by Unmesh Kher/New York
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