Europe Says Stem Cells Are Not Patentable; Confused Scientists Freak Out

from the this-doesn't-stop-the-market dept

In a major ruling from the European Court of Justice, stem cells have been declared unpatentable in Europe. This is somewhat similar to the ongoing fight in the US over whether or not genes are patentable. Here, the ECJ noted that using stem cells for diagnostic purposes may be patentable, but the simple process of separating a stem cell from a human embryo itself, is not patentable. As with genes, I think it's the right decision that such things should not be patentable.

What I find unfortunate, however, is that confused scientists are attacking this decision, claiming that without patents, there will be no investment in stem cell research. It will be interesting (and something of a natural experiment) to determine if that's true. I'm going to guess that the end result will not be what these scientists are predicting. While investment from some big pharma firms may decline, I would bet that the actual usefulness of stem cells is about to go up. Take this complaint for example:

"We are funded to do research for the public good, yet prevented from taking our discoveries to the marketplace where they could be developed into new medicines.

"One consequence is that the benefits of our research will be reaped in America and Asia."

That's from Professor Austin Smith of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research, University of Cambridge. But it's also totally bogus. Nothing in this ruling prevents anyone from taking the discovers to the marketplace where they can be developed into new medicines. This is a fallacy. Professor Smith might want to look up the history of the chemical and dye industries (many of which became today's pharma industry) in Switzerland and Germany when patents were either not allowed or greatly limited -- and learn that it actually helped bring more products to market because everyone could build on the research and do more with it to make it useful. You can still bring products to market, and the incentive is to keep innovating to bring even better offerings to market. And, by not limiting who can make use of these stem cells, you get much greater research efforts and much faster advancement.

Furthermore, as we've seen in the past, many research scientists have actually been complaining about how stem cells patents had massively hindered their research. Perhaps if Smith took the time to talk to some of those researchers he might realize the benefit from keeping stem cells and other genetic material unpatentable.

If the goal truly is to improve "the public good," then this is a fantastic ruling. It means that more smart people can do more with stem cells to make them useful.

Filed Under: europe, patents, research, stem cells

Cures For Paralysis, Diabetes And Blindness Hindered By Patents

from the more-people-are-figuring-it-out dept

We've talked a lot about how patents actually hinder the rate of innovation in many research areas. That's because nearly all innovation does not work on "the one big breakthrough" theory, but on incremental improvements over time, that all add up to big changes. But when you put a tollbooth and a decades-long monopoly on each incremental change, you massively slow down the rate of innovation. And, it's even worse in scientific research areas. That's because a lot of successful scientific innovation comes about from researchers sharing data and information with each other to get the ideas and inspirations to make the next leap. But with the rise in patenting basic science, scientists have been holding back information, slowing down their own breakthroughs.

Thankfully, more and more people are recognizing this issue. Scientists working on things involving embryonic stem cell research are complaining that patents are massively hindering their ability to advance their research, and it may be holding back cures for paralysis, diabetes and blindness, among other things.

Lanza recalls bumping up against his company's main competitor, Geron Corporation, when it came to researching stem cells in reversing diabetes, a process he said he had been working on with animals for many years.

"When I came to ACT to try to do it with stem cells I couldn't because the rights to use embryonic stem cells for diabetes had been exclusively licensed to Geron," he said.

"Here I was, a scientist trying to cure diabetes and I couldn't use my entire lifetime of expertise to try and develop that technology," he said.

The article notes that if the US keeps this up, other countries are likely to leapfrog us in terms of the research that they do, creating huge commercial opportunities and life-saving treatments, while the US wastes away fighting each other in court. Yet another reason why President Obama's suggestion that we're more innovative because we get more patents is completely off the mark.

Filed Under: blindness, diabetes, paralysis, patents, research, science, stem cells

DailyDirt: Modern Dentistry

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Not too many people enjoy going to the dentist -- which probably feeds into the urban legend that dentists have the highest suicide rates. But there may be a few dental developments that'll make going to the dentist a bit less scary. Being fastidious about flossing is a virtue, but for the rest of us who aren't so diligent, technology might help us out. Here are a few stories that might lead to better dental health.

Disrupting the enzyme responsible for plaque sticking to teeth could help eliminate cavities. So far, though, various inhibitors for glucansucrase have also blocked amylase in saliva -- which helps to digest starch. But maybe some folks might like not being able to digest starch? [url]

Stem cells from wisdom teeth could be useful to grow replacement teeth. So maybe kids in the future will be preserving their teeth instead of dealing with the tooth fairy. [url]

With some nifty freezing equipment, you could preserve your wisdom teeth for a couple decades. It's sorta like Futurama -- but only one organ at a time. [url]

Filed Under: cavities, dentist, glucansucrase, stem cells, teeth

Children's Hospital 'Allowed' To Continue Research Using System It Developed After Patent Fight

from the bizarro-world dept

Last month, we wrote about the absolutely ridiculous situation, where Children's Hospital of Orange County had to shelve its research into brain diseases for children for three years, because the company StemCells claimed it had a patent on the technique the researchers at the hospital were using. Of course, the hospital researchers had developed the technique entirely independently (potentially before StemCells did), but due to the patent, apparently that didn't matter. The small bit of good news is after three years of stifled research, StemCells and Children's Hospital have worked out an agreement to give the hospital a "license" for free. While this is good news, it's still quite worrisome that we had to deal with three years of stifled research to get to this point where some researchers could use techniques they, themselves, developed.

Even worse, because of the nature of the agreement -- a license from StemCells -- the press gets to erroneously suggest that somehow Children's Hospital had taken something from StemCells. Note the opening sentence of the article above:

Palo Alto biotech company StemCells will allow a children's research hospital to use its patented technology for free, clearing the way for greater study of conditions such as autism, brain cancer and neurological disease.

Remember, this is a technique that the researchers at the hospital came up with on their own, and now the press is saying that some other company "will allow" them to use it? And saying that it's actually using that company's "patented technology," when that's not true at all? The hospital isn't using StemCells' patented technology. Its using its own techniques that it developed.

This is a point that we've raised before. So many reporters contribute to massive misconceptions about patents by writing sentences like the one above. It implies that patent lawsuits really are about one group "copying" an idea or technology from another, and that the patent holder "owns" the technology itself. This is blatantly untrue in most cases.

What a ridiculous world we live in where a hospital researching brain diseases for children has to beg and plead for three years to be "allowed" to use its own technology, and then have the press make it sound like it had copied that technology from someone else.

Filed Under: patents, research, stem cells
Companies: children's hospital, stemcells