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HEALTH & SCIENCESARS spurs race for a cure -- and for patentsThe coronavirus that causes the respiratory disease was discovered and sequenced in record time because of unprecedented international collaboration. Now everyone is staking a claim.By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. May 26, 2003. Who owns it? That's quickly becoming a point of interest now that the genetic makeup for severe acute respiratory syndrome has been sequenced -- raising questions that could ultimately affect the next advances in the development of SARS diagnostic and treatment tools. The answers will also set the precedent for the handling of genetic information of future emerging infections. For now, at least two government agencies have applied for a U.S. patent on the coronavirus that causes SARS, and for its gene sequence. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Canada's British Columbia Cancer Agency have both publicly acknowledged that they have taken such action. And, according to several news reports, many more public and private entities may be attempting to secure patents on the virus or its various parts. The full list will not be available until at least 18 months after application, in accordance with U.S. Patent and Trademark Office policies. The flurry of claim staking has raised again the long-hovering uncertainties that surround patenting of organisms and genes, and resurrected debate about whether such patents hinder or help scientific progress. Patent experts say that the process allows information to be shared freely because a patent protects inventors' rights to profit from discovery. Some scientists, however, say the process is frustrating. "Once something becomes patented, it's much harder to distribute it readily," said David Sanders, PhD, associate professor of biological sciences at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. "In the course of my career, the difficulty of rapidly obtaining reagents has increased tremendously, and that's a real problem." [...]Full text of AMNews content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2003 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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