THERE鈥橲 something unsettling about corporations making huge profits from people鈥檚 suffering. No matter how often healthcare companies insist that they make our lives better, the balance between commercial success and the public good is a difficult one to find. In the past, countries as diverse as Spain, Italy, Turkey, India and Argentina chose to restrict or prohibit the patenting of pharmaceuticals. Now these unilateral solutions are being stamped out by the World Trade Organization (WTO), which lays down rules that all member countries and all sectors of industry have to follow.
But this still leaves us with a problem. We see it in its starkest form in the growing controversy over gene monopolies: companies such as Myriad Genetics of Salt Lake City in Utah. Myriad owns a series of patents on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which are used to assess a woman鈥檚 chances of developing breast and ovarian cancer. A company owning such patents could earn lucrative royalties from university labs 鈥� and, possibly, other companies 鈥� that develop tests for the patented genes. But instead, Myriad wants to be the world鈥檚 sole provider of comprehensive tests on these genes, and is trying to stop anyone else carrying them out.
This approach has been widely criticised in itself. Even more worrying is what could happen if pharmaceuticals companies follow Myriad鈥檚 lead. Their patent claims are growing ever wider, covering not only genes and proteins that are important in common diseases, but also modes of action of those proteins. If such a patent is awarded, the lucky company would gain exclusive rights not just to an individual drug but to a whole class of drugs. (see 鈥淵our money or your life鈥�). This is worrying indeed. It takes healthcare to a place no sensible person 鈥� or industry 鈥� would want to go.
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So, how do we stop this situation arising? The mechanisms we would normally turn to for support seem far from promising. Most Western countries have procedures for lodging challenges with patent offices and monopoly (anti-trust) authorities. But these tend to be used by large companies with deep pockets and a financial interest in stopping a rival.
As this magazine has said before (18 May, p 3), patent examiners could make this issue disappear at a stroke if they鈥檇 only nail down the uses to which patented genes and proteins can be put. Companies should be limited to specific applications they have shown can work, and not given rights over speculative uses they think genes and their proteins might be good for. But don鈥檛 hold your breath waiting for this to happen.
Another place one might turn for help is academia. But universities turn out to be part of the problem. These days, many of them patent everything that鈥檚 discovered in their labs. They then insist on selling patent rights to a single company, laying the foundations on which monopolies grow. They鈥檙e unlikely to stop doing this so long as it fills their coffers.
Nor can we expect much help from governments. Most Western governments avoid interfering with the business of big drugs companies for fear that they will decamp to another country. Indeed, there鈥檚 every sign that in the WTO negotiations designed to give poor countries access to cheaper drugs, Western governments are backpedalling like fury. They鈥檝e chosen to support the drugs giants rather than the needs of the poor.
So is there nowhere to find help? There is one glimmer of hope, in the form of a group of medics and researchers who are challenging Myriad鈥檚 patent in Europe. Part of the challenge is ethical 鈥� that Myriad鈥檚 use of its monopoly will hold back healthcare and research. We wish their campaign every success.
But there鈥檚 more to be done. It would be good to see more research gauging the effect of gene patents and monopolies on the pace of research. One study has shown clearly that researchers shy away from working on patented genes, but there鈥檚 plenty of scope for further investigation here. Another difficulty will be to give people employed by the state or charities enough time to build their cases. Convincing hard-pressed universities and hospitals or charities to provide the backing to mount a challenge remains a huge stumbling block.
Political trends wax and wane. The European challenge to Myriad was backed by the old left-of-centre governments in the Netherlands and France. It will be interesting to see if their right-of-centre successors carry on that support. But certainly in other Western countries, until official attitudes swing back from supporting business towards the public good there鈥檚 only one way for biologists and medics to safeguard the freedoms they enjoy, and that鈥檚 to act themselves.