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Stem Cell Patent Torpedoes Research

Posted by michael on from the paying-the-piper dept.

g8orade writes: "This story says the University of Winsconsin owns patents that may prevent anyone spending that federal money soon. "As they carry out President Bush's plan for government financing of embryonic stem cell studies, federal health officials confront a daunting challenge: U.S. patent 6,200,806, a claim to the human embryonic stem cell." Originally in the NYT, this is a link to the not free account-requiring Charlotte Observer."

2 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. Patents save lives by werdna · · Score: 3, Flamebait

    Imagine patents on seatbelts and airbags being used restrictively...like you could only get them or use them in Ford vehicles.

    Imagine that, indeed. As a matter of fact, there are a few gazillion patents covering every aspect of the field, and some of those patents dating back decades.

    AIDS vaccines are another key example. It is inexcusable that WIPO and other intellectual property organizations put corporate profit protection above human life.

    Nonsense. Patents make it possible for corporations to create life-saving technology and saves lives. Pharmaceutical companies raise capital from the marketplace for research and development and regulatory testing, not because shareholders are happy to volunteer funds for R&D, but because they hope the company will make a profit. If the company could not make a profit, the R&D and development wouldn't get done, and the products would be brought to market. If the company didn't have patents, competitors would simply free-ride on the R&D and compete with them using their own work. No profits, no product, no life saving drugs.

    Life saving drugs, such as tetracycline and a host of antibiotics, leukemia fighting drugs, and lifestyle preserving drugs such as Prozac and many others are the product of, not deterred by, the patent system.

  2. Re:Why bother with embryonic stem cells? by Capt.+Beyond · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Because embryonic stem cells are magic in that they can be made into ANY type of human tissue. Whereas adult stem cells are allready 'formed' into the type of tissue that they came from.

    --
    -- "Perceptions create reality. By changing your perceptions you change your reality."