Patenting genes: is it necessary and is it evil?

Last October, biologists’ neck-hair rose when J. Craig Venter announced his company, Celera, had filed 6,500 provisional patent applications for human genes. Henry Ford mass-produced automobiles — it seems evident we are now entering an era in which intellectual property is rolling off the assembly lines. Is this really the ultimate legacy of Watson and Crick’s elegant double helix? And what does it portend for the future of biology? On April 22, 1996, Europe’s patent office received an application from a US company called Human Genome Sciences, claiming the rights to the entire genome of Haemophilus influenzae. This patent also asserts the right to that information in any computer-readable form — effectively preventing it from being posted in any public database for any scientific use. Scientists wanting to interpret this genome and compare it to others would have to resort to paper and pencil — or presumably pay for access to a private database. Each of these cases is sobering in its own way, and each raises distinctly different issues. Consider first the attempt to patent the entire Haemophilus genome. Venter’s name is on that patent — and his wife’s is on a very similar application that would cover the whole genome of Mycoplasma genitalium. These patents have not been issued, and it’s not clear they will ever be. But the filing of the patents cuts to the heart of an issue surrounding the patenting of genes: just how much biology should be turned over to the private ownership of individuals and companies? The concept of patenting has been around for centuries. The original idea arose in England, where patents were first used as a means to lure printing presses into the country, in exchange for a limited monopoly on the printing technology. Later, patents were used to encourage guilds to reveal their trade secrets; a monopoly right was granted in exchange for information that others could then use to improve practices in science and the practical arts. Indeed, few would dispute that patents have encouraged innovation. But some gene patents are now testing the limits of the patent system.