Yesterday, in Kos' post about "1/5 of the human genome is pantented" and the following uproar, I was both amused and upset. Why? Well, my father
wrote those patents. So, although I don't have a Ph.D. like he does, or a law degree, (like he also does) I do have years of dinner time conversations, and less of a hatred for "big pharma" than I should have, being the card carrying liberal I am.
More on the flip side.....
First, a little background before you jump all over me and my dad. My grandparents escaped Nazi Austria and fled to Buenos Aires. At the ages of 45 and 47, they had my father, their only child. Then, when he was 13, his Mom died, and at 16, his Father. Unfortunately, the rest of his family did not make it out of Europe, except for one Uncle in New York. My father sold all of his posessions, and arrived in the U.S. carrying two suitcases... one of clothes, one of chemistry books. He enrolled at Ransellear Polytech in upstate New York, and then became the first RPI graduate to go to Harvard for his Ph.D. in BioChemistry. He completed a post-doc at MIT, and then decided to become a patent lawyer in what was then (1982) the developing field of biotechnical patent law. He is the American Dream.
So, what does this have to do with patents? The truth is, your genome isn't patented any more than your hair is. However, in developing shampoos, hairspray, and rogaine, the specific components in each of those products needed to be patented for use on hair so that the market isn't filled with shoddy imitations and half developed products. Hence, particular tests on hair needed to be patented. Getting a patent is not an easy task. The science must be complete and of the highest level. For genomes, what is patented are the tests that use a specific genomic combination in order to test for diseases, like Cancer, Altzheimers and Parkinson's. Your and my genomes are not patented. However, if we want advances and cures in these diseases, scientists need to patent these gene sequences. Why? Because, in the end, (and the scientists HATE this fact) big pharma (even the generics, who fight the big pharma patents many times in order to provide cheaper alternatives) is run by businessmen, not scientists. And science takes money. Especially good science. So, no worries, no one is coming for your genes. But some day, they may be able to test them for Parkinson's and start you on treatment way earlier than you would ever show symptoms. Because of human genome patenting today.
On a side note: One of my Dad's "side" projects, which will become his main project when he retires in a few years, is going to Latin America and, pro bono, defending native tribes whose land and knowledge has been co-opted by drug companies, making sure they recieve payment for the plants which have been taken from their land and credit for "discovering" a new cure for headaches, or what have you. Yeah, I'm pretty proud of him.