Proponent of Gene Patent Ban to Leave Congress

    By Kevin E. Noonan --

Roll Call, the Newspaper of Capitol Hill since 1955, announced today that Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA, 31st Dist.) "appears poised to accept a post as U.S. trade representative" in the Obama administration.  We here at Patent Docs, and all reasoning members of the patent community, wish Rep. Becerra (at right) well in his new position, and breathe a sigh of relief that another wrong-thinking political meddler won't be in the next Congress to work more mischief on the U.S. patent system.

Rep. Becerra, it will be recalled, is the House member who introduced a bill, the Genomic Research and Accessibility Act, to ban human gene patenting (see "The Continuing Threat to Human Gene Patenting").  Rep. Becerra, in his remarks introducing the bill on the House floor on February 7, 2007, stated his reasons for introducing the bill that included the usual (mis)statements:  that patent holders own "our" genes; that countries that do not permit gene patenting have "better" genetic tests; and that gene patenting impedes research.  Even though none of these statements are true, they have traction with the uninformed and provide convenient populist political soundbites.  But we heed them at our peril.

For example, despite its title Rep. Becerra's bill was not limited to banning DNA patenting.  The prohibition is to "a nucleotide sequence, or its functions or correlations, or the naturally occurring products it specifies."  If passed, this bill would ban not only DNA patenting itself but also a patent on "the naturally-occurring products [a nucleic acid] specifies."  This would ban patenting of all naturally-occurring proteins produced by any means.  This would include proteins such as blood clotting Factor VIII, erythropoietin, hemoglobin, albumen, insulin, human growth hormone, and all human antibody drugs like Herceptin®, to name only a few.  It would also ban any diagnostic assay depending on the identification of genetic polymorphisms such as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), no matter how deduced.  This would render unpatentable not only existing polymorphism-based assays but those yet to be developed.  In short, the bill would eliminate patent protection for the molecules that are expected to provide the "pipeline" of new drugs for the next twenty years.  (It would not, paradoxically, render unpatentable recombinant cells and organisms used to produce useful quantities of these gene products that could otherwise not be obtained in useful quantities.)

Godspeed, Rep. Becerra.

Comments

[EG]

"We here at Patent Docs, and all reasoning members of the patent community, wish Rep. Becerra (at right) well in his new position, and breathe a sigh of relief that another wrong-thinking political meddler won't be in the next Congress to work more mischief on the U.S. patent system."

Kevin,

I couldn't agree with you more. The title to the Becerra bill was so misleading about what the bill language actually covered. The only trouble is that, as trade representative, Becerra will now be involved with foreign IP issues. May be he'll have a change of heart when he sees US IP get poor protection abroad.

[JDF]

Rep. Bacerra was so misguided and out of touch with the issue that he presented his proposed legislation that would eliminate patent protection for nucleic acids and their functions on the very same day that Congress congratulated Craig Mello for winning the Nobel prize for his discovery of RNAi.

EG, I couldn't agree more with your take on the potential "re-education" that Bacerra will receive as the new USTR. I just hope that he does not hand the reins on the GRAA over to one of his equally misinformed and misguided colleagues.