John Sulston, along with Sarah Chan and John Harris, writes that scientific process is being stymied due to excessive ownership of scientific intellectual property. One of the more troubling statistics? Private companies have patented nearly 20 per cent of human genes.
For example, it is estimated that some 20% of individual human genes have been patented already or have been filed for patenting. As a result, research on certain genes is largely restricted to the companies that hold the patents, and tests involving them are marketed at prohibitive prices. We believe that this poses a very real danger to the development of science for the public good.
Essentially, if any group wants to conduct research on certain types of genes, they have to pay the patent holder to formally carry out the experiment. And then, of course, there are the pharmaceutical companies, who will buy up expiring patents to prevent potential competitors from infringing on the market territory of their status quo drug.
All of this, according to Sulston and co, means we’re limiting the best possible scientific breakthroughs. Instead, we’re stuck waiting for the ones which prove most profitable. That sucks. [Guardian via Open Science]
Image via Shutterstock
Joe Blogs
Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at 11:37 AMWhat the hell??? Who let this happen??? How can you patent a gene???
Is anyone else terrified by this???
Scott
Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at 11:43 AMI am confused as to you can patent something that is inherent within all of us? Something that wasn’t actual invented by Humans but which is the very essence of being Human. By the same token why cant I patient Kidneys or Hearts and anyone who has one must pay me royalties? Or even Oxygen or ‘Air’ and you must not use it without my permission? Any chance you can elaborate on this Gizmodo?
Sam
Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at 12:05 PMDiscoveries are patentable? Can’t we just point to a person and claim prior art?
Sicarius123
Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at 12:18 PMIf you want to be entertained while reading about how terrifying this is, read Michael Crichton’s Prey.
Gazman
Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at 1:09 PMI think his book “Next” also had a similar storyline… it is scary stuff really.
Sicarius123
Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at 10:57 PMActually that was the book I was thinking of lol.
Ogre
Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at 12:26 PMI suppose this is the logical extension of software patents. We can patent mathematical discoveries, as long as they are algorithms, so I suppose it makes sense that we can patent genes, otherwise, how would we patent programs designed to run on DNA based systems? Way to crush medical nanotechnology innovation before it even starts.
Ian
Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at 12:45 PMYet another reason as to why the patient system should be at a minimum overhauled or preferably completely terminated.
The original idea behind patients was so that an inventor (or in this case, a discoverer) can reclaim monies spent developing a technology.
However, under the current systems, all a patient does is grant the owner the ability to extort.
What a world we live in.
Cflow
Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at 12:49 PMPatent fail.
Technology to map DNA should be patented obviously, but DNA itself should be exempt from such obvious attempts to control data.
Matt L
Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at 1:03 PMDoes this mean it’s illegal for me to work out new ways of extracting the data from the DNA? I hate the idea that a coorperation believes it’s the only entity capable of understanding certain sciences. What we’ve learned from open source software and hacked technologies, the best ideas come from outside sources.
Nathan
Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at 1:25 PMDoes that mean we are breaking patents by the sheer fact we self replicate our DNA. I’m breaking patent law millions of times a second.
Someone should turn up to a police station and demand to be arrested and tried for patent infringement and get the courts to judicially legislate this crap.
Robert
Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at 1:48 PMfrom what i’ve been told (and not spending any extra time reading in to it), they are not actually patenting the gene or chromosome, but rather the METHOD used to access it. Sometimes there is only one way to access a chromosome (that has been found so far – any maybe forever), and if that chromosome is needed to cure some type of defect or cancer, you can’t access it without paying royalties.
You cannot patent your cancer curing method without the patent holder knowing (and you paying to access the chromosome), otherwise they will take you to court and you have to explain how you were able to access that chromosome. If it’s their method, you pay them royalties.
THIS is seriously hindering scientific breakthroughs and cures.
boc
Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at 4:24 PMHeard about this at least five years ago. Great to see that nothing’s changed. Hooray for poor governing and laws…
Distractobot
Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at 4:41 PMTrying to see the glass half full here.
Due to the fact almost all scientific advances nowadays are based on money, wouldn’t monetizing DNA methods aid in research. If you discover something and everyone copies it, it’s really not worth it financially, but if it’s worth selling then that’s when the big companies throw their millions into it and the high level research comes into play.
ChemZ
Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at 6:56 PMWell yes big companies can afford to do that, they’re rich!
What about your smaller research labs who don’t have access to millions of dollars? They shouldn’t miss out, and their work is just as important.
Who’s to say only big companies make important findings?
Victor
Thursday, June 16, 2011 at 12:45 AMTotally agree with Distractobot
True, big companies can afford it, but without patent ie. the opportunity to make some money from it, there’s no incentive to invest millions into research, just to have it snatched up by another company or the government and distributed freely.
Small companies can make important findings, but again, without patents, there’s no incentive.
Brendan
Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at 8:05 PMThis is just plain bullshit. People tried to patent genes around ten years ago, around the time of human genome project but these are not recognised in courts. See wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_patent) before getting too upset people. Do your homework Gizmodo!