Biotechnology patents set for renewed debate

Date: 27/06/1996

By Tim Jones

THE tortuous passage of the directive aimed at protecting biotechnological inventions resumes at the beginning of next month with its main proponent confident of victory this time.

At its next meeting on 8 July, the Parliament's legal affairs committee is expected to debate the contents of a punchy working document from German Socialist MEP and rapporteur Willi Rothley.

“The public debate on genetic engineering has become focused on patents for biotechnological inventions in a way which has nothing to do with the spirit of patent law,” he says in the opening sentence of his draft text.

Rothley is determined to avoid a repeat of his experience as rapporteur for the committee the last time this directive - which would establish common rules on biotech patent protection - went through the EU's legislative process.

It was finally abandoned in March last year after the Parliament voted to reject compromise proposals from Rothley which many MEPs felt took insufficient account of their legal, ethical and environmental concerns.

The original proposal would have allowed companies to apply for patents on discovered genes rather than inventions, as is usual in patent law. The revised proposal effectively does the same.

The Greens, and some Socialists, argue that it is wrong to allow the 'patenting of human life'. The biotechnology industry, and Rothley argue that this misses the point.

What they are seeking is patent protection for inventions as well as for isolated genes

used in specific treatments. The use of a gene would only be patented for a very confined use while the gene itself would not be patented.

Without this kind of protection, firms would not be willing to make the huge investments necessary to carry out research into and the development of treatments, with the risk that the fruits of their work could be snapped up by other firms.

At a public hearing earlier this month, MEPs heard the views of the industry and other scientific experts. On the basis of this and discussions with other deputies, Rothley is confident of support from his fellow MEPs this time around; a confidence not shared by industry.

“He is supremely overconfident,” says a spokesman for a leading pharmaceutical firm. “But we have a long way to go and the fighting has not even begun.”

Opponents of the directive are already lining up to draft amendments to Rothley's document, with little sign that the Greens or Socialists - led by Evelyn Gebhardt - will change their minds.

Industry will hope that they can at least be persuaded to channel their opposition into support for separate bio-ethical legislation, turning their attention away from the issue of patents.