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July 20, 2006

stem cell patents in jeopardy...

With stem cells grazing the headlines again, it was only a matter of time before patents entered into the debate.  So is it the President or the patents that are holding back stem cells this time?

According to the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR), patents held by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), are holding back stem cell research.  The patents were awarded to University of Wisconsin researcher James Thomson, who you may remember from the Time magazine cover in 2001.  James Thomson was credited with the first successful isolation of human embryonic stem cell lines in 1998 that led to three separate patents now under scrutiny.  The FTCR claims two of the patents are invalid because they cover techniques published back in a 1992 Australian patent and that a 1990 paper and two textbooks render Thomson’s stem cell work obvious.

Of course the FTCR wants the patents declared invalid, as does every for-profit researcher in the country because of WARF’s licensing fees.  Yet WARF is hardly holding back stem cell research in protecting their patent.  In fact, WARF provides free licenses and cells to over 300 non-profit research groups.   However, WARF says if you are going to use the technology “commercially” then not surprisingly, they want a cut of the profits.   

What is the most surprising is that James Thomson can find himself on the cover of Time magazine in 2001 with a caption that reads, “The man who brought you stem cells is one of America’s best in science and medicine,” but 5 years later his research and work is thought of by others as obvious.  Interesting….

Posted by Laura Wood at 05:39 PM.
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