Human genome carve-up continues

In the late 1990s, when the human genome project was beginning to look like a realistic endeavour, only to be challenged by the competing bid from entrepreneur and shotgun sequencing pioneer Craig Venter, the competition between a publicly funded sequencing effort and a private one raised the issue of who would own the genome data, and whether parts of it would be protected by patents. As genomic research moved on at lightning pace, this debate was somehow left behind. Now for the first time, two MIT researchers have 'mapped' patents of human genes onto the genome, to present an overview of the intellectual property situation in human genomics. have fed information from US patent databases into standard bioinformatics search tools such as BLAST, in order to establish which genes are covered by one or several patents, and whether there are any patterns in the patenting activity. They discovered that, of the 23,688 human genes listed in the databases they used, 4,382 or 18.5 per cent were claimed as intellectual property by at least one US patent (Science (2005) 310, 239). So who owns the patent rights to nearly a fifth of our genome? The researchers identified 1,156 different patent holders, although this number may be reduced by mergers, acquisitions, and naming variations. Almost two-thirds of the patents are held by private companies. The leader of the pack seems to be the firm Incyte, which holds rights over more than 2,000 different human genes. Most of these patents are related to the use of gene sequences in DNA microarrays. When mapped to the genome, the patents show a predictable clustering on medically relevant genes. The two hottest of the intellectual property hotspots are BMP7, which stimulates bone growth, and the tumor suppressor CDKN2A, each covered by 20 patents. An additional ten genes are claimed by ten or more different patents, and over 100 genes are covered by five or more. So far, it is unclear, the authors say, " whether current practice in patent examination has allowed multiple conflicting patents on the same gene. " Ever since genome sequencing began, there have been debates about the benefits and risks of gene patents. Many in the biotech industry will defend the practice, claiming that the patent protection provides incentive for product development. With the new study there is now a foundation to investigate in more detail the effects the patenting situation has …