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A Canberra academic has called for a ban on patents over our body's building blocks, warning these can stifle research that may produce cures for deadly diseases.
Luigi Palombi a lawyer turned academic who heads the Australian National University's Genetic Sequence Right Project is about to give evidence to a federal parliamentary inquiry into gene patents.
He has also penned Gene Cartels: Biotech Patents in the Age of Free Trade.
''I wrote the book so that we could start to tell a story about how the patent system is being used in an improper way to create monopolies over genes,'' he said yesterday.
Dr Palombi cited the controversy in this country when a company tried to assert patent rights over a genetic mutation linked with breast cancer and ovarian cancer.
The company ordered public pathology laboratories to stop testing for this mutated gene an incident that sparked the parliamentary inquiry instigated by Liberal senator Bill Heffernan.
Dr Palombi said the patent law system created in the 16th century was designed to protect inventions, which clearly ruled out genes.
''Once you...
Luigi Palombi a lawyer turned academic who heads the Australian National University's Genetic Sequence Right Project is about to give evidence to a federal parliamentary inquiry into gene patents.
He has also penned Gene Cartels: Biotech Patents in the Age of Free Trade.
''I wrote the book so that we could start to tell a story about how the patent system is being used in an improper way to create monopolies over genes,'' he said yesterday.
Dr Palombi cited the controversy in this country when a company tried to assert patent rights over a genetic mutation linked with breast cancer and ovarian cancer.
The company ordered public pathology laboratories to stop testing for this mutated gene an incident that sparked the parliamentary inquiry instigated by Liberal senator Bill Heffernan.
Dr Palombi said the patent law system created in the 16th century was designed to protect inventions, which clearly ruled out genes.
''Once you...