Gene patenting is an exclusive right to a specific gene or technology regarding that gene. Gene patenting has its pros and its cons. Pros, as with any patent, prevent the possibility of stolen work and the thief claiming the work for himself. The biggest con, as presented in the text are, “the fees demanded by Du Pont,” or any patent owner (Watson 124).
In general, the owner of the patent, whether it be a large company or a small one has total rights over it, and so it can decide the price others must pay to use their patent. In addition to setting a price, owners can also put in certain rules regarding their patent. Du Pont has demanded that, “academic institutions disclose what experiments are being performed using the company’s patented oncomice” (124). These cons are a major
roadblock for biotechnology, and the small amount of pros do not outweigh them. 2. James Watson, author of DNA: The Secret of Life, has a negative view on gene patenting. He thinks that the gene patents impede faster discoveries and create a monopoly, creating huge prices to simply use the technology, Personally, I also think that gene patenting is bad for the science world and the continued development of biotechnology. An example of this was mentioned earlier, the Du Pont mouse, this patent was an umbrella patent that, “covered all cancer prone transgenic animals” (124).
Companies now have to pay Du Pont a fee whenever they use the technology, the costs discourage many companies to tum away from such research. Another example is the epoetin alpha (EPO) case (125). Two separate companies, Amgen and Genetics Institute both created a recombinant version of EPO. The problem was which of these two companies would have rights over the product. In the end Amgen won the court battle and is now one of the biggest biotech companies because of EPO. Gene patenting limits the other companies from developing similar technologies without fees and legal action and so slows down the further research of biotechnology.
Scientific discoveries usually come from well thought out ideas, planning, and testing. But, sometimes they do happen because of accidents, many of these accidental discoveries have been associated with the genes. Not much is known about genes in regards to the rest of the potential knowledge about genes so accidents are common. Recently, Regeneron has tried to develop a treatment for ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). After the two trial groups failed, they gave up, but later found out that their drug had a side effect of weight-loss, and is now developing this drug further as a weight- loss therapy.
This was a turn of events, “that illustrates just how serendipitous the biotech business can be,” serendipitous meaning pleasant surprise (126). Amgen also had discovered a “Viagra-like therapy for erectile dysfunction” by accident when they were researching the enzyme class called phosphodiesterases (128). On top of these two discoveries, many others have been made from pure luck and chance.
GM (genetically modified) foods are one of the most debated topics in our modern world. These foods are modified in a way so that it improves the food in one way or another, from taste, to disease resistance, and even simply how it looks. These foods are actually very helpful, allowing more or better harvests of some foods can benefit farmers who do not have that much space to grow crops. They also allow some crops to be cultivated in areas that were impossible to do so unless some gene was placed in the plant.
Overall, GM foods have more pros than cons and should be researched and developed further (132). Another important biotechnology, although it is currently causing problems, is the oncomouse from Du Pont (130). These types of mice help with the research of cancer cures, cancer is one of the world’s deadliest disease, killing millions every year. The sooner a cure is found the sooner the pain and grief of losing someone to cancer can be negated.
