Academic Medicine: Special Issue on Gene Patents

The ongoing debate over the application of U.S. patent law in genetic research is the focus of a special issue of Academic Medicine, the journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), released December 2002.

This special theme issue, funded in part by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, sheds light on this highly complex topic through a series of articles and commentaries that range from a strong defense of the current patent system to thoughtful criticism of patent practices and proposals for reform.

"At the heart of the matter is the patent system's treatment of human gene sequences as simply 'chemical compositions of matter,' concerning which both patent law and practice are well settled," said Dr. David Korn, AAMC Senior Vice President for Biomedical and Health Sciences Research.

"But it can be argued that genetic sequences are not properly managed by this approach because in fact their biological and medical importance rests far more in the wealth of information they contain than in simply describing their structure. The depth, complexity, and physiological ramifications of that information are not obvious from the simple description of the sequence, but can only be determined by future experimentation. This fundamental fact is not dealt with adequately in current patent law or practice," Korn said.

The issue is entitled " Public versus Private Ownership of Scientific Discovery: Legal and Economic Analyses of the Implications of Human Gene Patents". Several articles from this issue are available here:

Introduction: Patents, Genomics, and Academic Medicine, by David Korn, MD, and Stephen Heinig. (PDF, 8 pages - 131KB)

Human Gene Patents, by Jorge Goldstein, PhD, JD, and Elina Golod, JD. (PDF, 14 pages - 177KB)

Patents and Research: An Uneasy Alliance, by Kate Murashige, PhD, JD. (PDF, 10 pages - 142KB)

Patents, Genomics, Research and Diagnostics, by John H. Barton. (PDF, 9 pages - 141KB)

The Economics of Human Gene Patents, by Frederic M. Scherer, MBA, PhD. (PDF, 20 pages - 243KB)

Other articles and commentaries from this issue are available at Academic Medicine.

"A Brief Guide to Understanding Patentability and the Meaning of Patents," by George C. Elliott, PhD.

"Genomic Patents: A Case Study in Patenting Research Tools," by Arti K. Rai, JD.

"Gene Patents and Innovation," by Lee Bendekgey, JD and Diana Hamlet-Cox, PhD, JD.

"Why the Gene Patenting Controversy Persists," by Rebecca S. Eisenberg, JD

"Medical Practice and Gene Patents: A Personal Perspective," by Debra G. B. Leonard, MD, PhD.

"Public vs. Proprietary Science: A Fruitful Tension?" By Rebecca S. Eisenberg, JD, and Richard R. Nelson, PhD (first published in Daedalus).

A limited number of printed copies of this issue are available.

For more information, please contact: Stephen Heinig or Nbutti Chatman at (202) 828-0487 or nchatman@aamc.org .