Who owns your genes?

Abstract

The attempt to break the hold that Myriad has on key patents for cancer genes has reopened the debate on who can own rights to biology. At the press conference held to announce success in transplanting a synthetic genome into a living cell, scientist and cofounder of Synthetic Genomics J Craig Venter claimed: 'I have never been quite comfortable claiming patents on discoveries.' Yet Venter's name was prominent on the bundle of patents filed during his work on the Human Genome Project. In his autobiography, Venter claims he became the scapegoat for the patents filed in the 1990s patents on fragments of DNA uncovered during the sequencing work as part of a plan by the National Institute of Health to secure rights over the DNA before private researchers. But the company he founded and later left, Celera Genomics, sought patents on hundreds of potentially significant human genes despite not knowing what most of the DNA did. Even after Celera, Venter went on to help put together a wide-ranging patent to support his synthetic biology based on subsets of a natural bacterium. Celera was not alone. Incyte Genomics and Human Genome Sciences did the same. But it was Monsanto, already widely criticised for its approach to intellectual property (IP) in the biosciences, who triggered a lawsuit that changed the way that agencies such as the US Patent and Trademark Office viewed DNA patents in the mid-2000s. After that case, the USPTO decided that only genes with a known function could be patented, not just fragments of DNA that seem to come from individual genes found during mass sequencing efforts. Even that view could change again if another biotechnology company, Myriad Genetics, fails in its appeal to put its name against sequences of DNA that have existed in humans for millennia. It is the latest battle in the war to gain control over chunks of the genome, most of which is taking place in the United States of America but which has seen skirmishes in Europe and, more recently, in Australia.