No to gene patents, says Euro group

Written byElie Dolgin

| 2 min read

Patents should be granted only for genetic tests, not for genes and DNA sequences, a working party from the linkurl:European Society of Human Genetics;http://www.eshg.org/ (ESHG) and linkurl:EuroGentest,;http://www.eurogentest.org/ a European Union-funded initiative to improve linkurl:genetic testing;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/14181/ in Europe, said at a press conference on Thursday (April 24) according to linkurl:Medical News Today.;http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/105478.php The recommendations are the result of a four-year investigation and a series of workshops involving the ESHG's linkurl:Public and Professional Policy Committee;http://www.eshg.org/PPPC.htm (PPPC) and the linkurl:Patenting and Licensing Committee;http://www.eshg.org/plc.htm (PLC), in consultation with a large number of scientists, ethicists, lawyers, and technology transfer specialists. "Nowadays, identifying new genes is very obvious, and all the methods are well-established, so it should not be patentable anymore," Ségolène Aymé, a medical geneticist at the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research in Paris and head of the PPPC, told The Scientist. "What is patentable is the inventive process — if you can describe how to use a gene for a specific purpose — but not the gene itself." The ESHG group is calling for new models for licensing within existing linkurl:patent;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53497/ legislation, rather than a complete overhaul of the genetic intellectual property protection system. Their recommendations will now be taken to the European Patent Commission and the European Parliament. Aymé said the European Patent Commission hurt the research environment by granting a number of patents for genetic claims that were too broad. "Most of the problems come from patents granted for bad reasons," she said. The PPPC is urging better training for genetic patent reviewers and the use of a scientific advisory committee to evaluate the scope of patent claims. "The main debate now is not if genes should be patented or not, but rather are we stopping inventions because too many patents are preventing researchers from getting licenses," said Aymé. The PPPC's recommendations are linkurl:published;http://www.nature.com/ejhg/journal/v16/n1s/abs/5201929a.html in the May issue of the European Journal of Human Genetics.

No to gene patents, says Euro group

The Scientist ARCHIVES

Become a Member of

Meet the Author

Elie Dolgin

Related Research Resources

What Is the Amniotic Fluid Composed of?

Research Resources

Podcasts

Webinars

Videos

Infographics

eBooks

Skip the Wait for Protein Stability Data with Aunty

An Automated DNA-to-Data Framework for Production-Scale Sequencing

Exploring Cellular Organization with Spatial Proteomics

Organoid Origins and How to Grow Them

Products

Product News

BRANDTECH Scientific Introduces the Transferpette® pro Micropipette: A New Twist on Comfort and Control

Biotium Launches GlycoLiner™ Cell Surface Glycoprotein Labeling Kits for Rapid and Selective Cell Surface Imaging

Thermo Scientific X and S Series General Purpose Centrifuges

VANTAstar Flexible microplate reader with simplified workflows