1245 Patenting DNA

Patents, especially where it’s health related, have always been problematic, but in the case of patenting genes it’s obscene. Patents aren’t supposed to be granted to discovery: if something exists in nature, the medicinal properties of a plant for example, maybe the special preparation of the medicine can be patented but not the ingredient derived from the plant. Other people can prepare it in another way. In the case of DNA, however, patents have been allowed for identifying specific genes, essentially prohibiting other business interests that could take advantage of that information for their own products. Consider the gene sequence that’s predictive of breast cancer, BRAC. The researchers who identified the connection were granted a patent on it. How can anybody else work on cures for breast cancer if BRAC belongs to somebody? For example, if a company developed a treatment such as a nanobot gene-splicer that targeted BRAC and repaired it, they would have to pay the patent holder, or even worse, not be allowed to market their solution. Today, thousands of human genes have been patented, including those associated with Alzheimer's disease, colon cancer & asthma. The nightmare scenario is that the people who sequenced someone’s personal human genome get the patent on everyone’s.