Life-saving scientific research is being stifled by a "broken" patent system,

WHERE OUR SCIENTISTS ARE HEADING?

Dravida Peravai feels that all research in science is meant to help humanity and unfortunately patent regime promotes profits of companies and not serves the community. While we read this BBC story, for a while it flashed in our memory that during the BJP-NDA rule at Center Gomutra Distillate got US patent. If Morarji Desai had been alive some Government would have got patent to human urine too.

BJP DRIVE TO PATENT COW URINE and COWDUNG

Times of India report stated “Cow urine has been found to enhance the effect of antibiotics. A composition by Indian scientists using cow urine distillate to enhance the antimicrobial effect of the antibiotic present in the formulation has been granted a US patent. This finding could have a significant impact on drug usage. The novel use of the distillate could help reduce the dosage of antibiotics, drugs and anti cancer agents while increasing the efficiency of absorption of anti-biotic and other drugs.

Union HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi who announced the US patent at a function on July of 2002 said the patent demonstrated the use of cow urine distillate as an active enhancer for anti infective and anti cancer agents. The patent No 6410059 was given on June 25th .

There are lot of medicinal plants in India, and in each food item of our usage more particularly in South, the saying is food itself is medicine. Research or patenting any of these had never been on the agenda of BJP governments. 

Take for example our neem, which is planted everywhere in China, to extract and market neem based products. During the NDA rule being introduced by Comrade George Fernandes to Planning Commission Member Dr.S.B.Gupta, I submitted a plan to plant the Himalayan Yew trees all over Himalayas. These trees were grown in Meghalaya, and the compound of these trees had anti cancer properties. One kilo of those compound extracted from many trees had a value in crores in international markets. These trees were regularly smuggled through Burma to international markets.

Such trees can grow in Himalayan region or in such climate. I suggested that all the tribal and other indigenous people and all villagers of that region irrespective of caste or creed be provided with saplings and encouraged to plant these trees all over Himalayas. Those people must be conferred with the right to sell these trees once grown, so that within a decade or so, each family can earn lakhs or crores and come out of poverty.

 Comrade George Fernandes recalled his first trip by flight over Himalayas and the contrast he saw flying over Himalayas as Defense Minister. He said in those days full of green cover was there, and felling of trees had done havoc to the ecology of the region. My plan was discussed in Planning Commission and an idea emerged to create a Himalayan Authority to save the ecology of Himalayas. But in mid stream, some sadist among bureaucrats killed this scheme by saying India alone cannot create an institution to save Himalayas, but other countries surrounding Himalayas should be brought in and a Trans National Authority be created. This is how our bureaucrats bury good schemes that will wipe poverty, empower economically our poor, and save our ecology. If only Comrade George Fernandes was Prime Minster, I could have broken the bureaucratic  hurdles. Even this deliberation in Planning Commission was because of him and his proximity with Mr.Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a good man in bad company, as Dr.Kalaignar M.Karunanithi used to describe.

The religious frenzy that drove Murli Manohar Joshi to patent cow’s urine also made the then Animal Husbandry Minister of BSP-BJP coalition government of Uttar Pradesh send lorry loads of cow dung to Bhaba Atomic Research Centre in Trivandrum to examine the power of cow dung to shield people from nuclear radiation. I jokingly wrote a guest editorial in Tamil daily Maalai Bhoomi, that if western powers threw nuclear bombs at us we can defend by throwing cow dung on them. Atom Bomb versus Cow dung Bomb is the title of that editorial.

This incident illustrates the researches BJP is interested in and the Patents India gets. There is an article in BBC on Patents which is given below, which prompted me to say that in all research humanity should ultimately benefit.

  

Patent system 'stifling science'  

 

By James Morgan Science reporter, BBC News

Life-saving scientific research is being stifled by a "broken" patent system, according to a new report. "Blocking patents" are delaying advances in cancer medicine and food crops, says the Canada-based Innovation Partnership, a non-profit consultancy. The full benefits of synthetic biology and nanotechnology will not be realized without urgent reforms to encourage sharing of information, they say. Their findings will be reported next week to UK policymakers and NGOs. The report is compiled by the Innovation Partnership's International Expert Group on Biotechnology, Innovation and Intellectual Property.

It cites examples of medical advances which have been delayed from reaching people in need - in both the developed and developing world. These include HIV/Aids drugs and cancer screening tests. In pharmacy, we no longer see much discovery - we see firms playing safe and holding onto their turf

   

Pat Mooney, ETC Group

The authors offer guidelines for a transition from "Old IP" to "New IP", in which companies, researchers and governments recognize that sharing information is mutually beneficial. "If we are to turn the atoms of publicly funded discovery into molecules of innovation... we have to make sure research avenues stay open," said the report's lead author, Professor Richard Gold. "That doesn't mean there will be no patents. It simply means that patents don't become a barrier to early stage research. "We do not want to end up in the same situation with nanotechnology that we are in with genetics."

Fortress IP

The traditional view is that strong patent protection stimulates innovation, reassuring companies that it is safe to invest in research without fear of being stung by rivals. Under this "old" model of intellectual property (IP), biotech firms raced to file a "fortress" of patents around newly discovered genes, closing off avenues of research for their competitors. But this strategy is ultimately counter-productive for both industry and consumers, argues the report, not least because it deters grass roots research in universities. Work on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes that can cause breast cancer has been held up by legal disputes over patents held on the genes by Myriad Genetics, a biotech firm based in Utah, US. Meanwhile, patients in European countries were denied access to the cancer screening kits, because national health services were unwilling to meet the cost. The Myriad case is "an anatomy of old IP gone wrong", said Dr Gold, Professor of Intellectual Property Law at McGill University in Montreal.

"Myriad is not the exception - it is the rule. Others are following and will continue to follow, unless we drastically change things." To facilitate sharing of information, he believes companies should be encouraged to form "patent pools", allowing them to cross-license their technologies without losing out on royalties. An example is the pool established by the international partnership Unit aid to provide HIV patients in developing countries with access to affordable anti-retroviral drugs.

Partnerships

Governments should develop public-private partnerships to conduct early stage research, and seek other ways to encourage innovation - via tax credits, for instance. Meanwhile, patent offices must standardize their information gathering and do more to help firms in developing countries gain access to accurate patent information, the report recommends.

Reform now would ensure that society feels the full benefit of new fields such as synthetic biology, a discipline that could lead to cells with novel genomes which perform useful functions, such as making bio-fuels or absorbing greenhouse gases. Dr Craig Venter, the man who led the private sector effort to sequence the human genome, has already raised eyebrows by applying to patent the method he plans to use to create a "synthetic organism". Fears that these patents may be too broad have been raised by the ETC Group, which campaigns for the reform of biotech patenting. "The patenting system is not functioning. It is more of a barrier than an incentive," said Pat Mooney, the organization’s executive director. "In pharmacy, we no longer see much discovery - we see firms playing safe and holding onto their turf.”Meanwhile, in nanotechnology, we have seen some dangerously broad patents, which cut off whole areas of research.” Patent offices must get up to speed with new areas of science, so they know exactly how much they are giving away."

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/7632318.stm

Published: 2008/09/24 08:56:10 GMT