EU assembly approves patenting of human materials
RTw 16.07.97 16:00
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By Gillian Handyside
STRASBOURG, July 16 (Reuter) - A controversial plan to allow
companies in the European Union to win patents covering certain
human body parts and other living material cleared its first
hurdle in the European Parliament on Wednesday.
After vetoing in 1995 a draft EU law on patents for
biotechnological inventions, including genetic engineering,
Euro-MPs on Wednesday approved a new proposal from the European
Commission -- amid heavy lobbying by industrial, environmental
and medical groups.
While the new text says "discoveries" of elements that
already exist in nature can never be patented, it allows for
patents on "inventions" using this basic biological
material to solve particular medical and agricultural problems.
To the outrage of Green Euro-MPs and others who believe the
proposal goes too far in allowing industrial companies to own
living human, animal or plant material, the law also permits the
patenting of human genes and other parts of the body if they are
"isolated from the human body or otherwise produced by means
of a technical process."
This will be allowed "even if the structure of that element
is identical to that of a natural element," although the
patent application must cite an industrial application.
The draft directive, which now goes to EU ministers before
returning to the parliament for a final assessment, also permits
processes which modify the genetic identity of animals, so long
as this does not cause suffering "disproportionate to the
objectives pursued."
Green attempts to outlaw the use of genetic knowledge to produce
biological weapons failed to win enough support from the rest of
the EU assembly.
Parliament's approval of the Commission text without substantial
change marks a significant step in a nine-year quest to agree
EU-wide patenting laws.
Supporters of the proposal said it was necessary to harmonise the
EU bloc's 15 sets of national laws to encourage European
investment in the potential lucrative biotechnology industry and
end the risk of legal challenges.
The Commission and industry argue that companies should be able
to patent inventions using human material to stop others
profiting free of charge from their time-consuming and costly
efforts to find cures for cancer and other diseases.
The result was welcomed by the European Federation of
Pharmaceutical Industries' Associations, which said the
protection for investment offered by patenting would help
European companies catch up with their American and Japanese
competitors.
But a group of eight prominent environmental and animal welfare
groups slammed the parliament's decision, saying Euro-MPs had
"voted against the expressed concerns of virtually all
sectors of European civil society to allow patents on life -- for
the sole benefit of the large biotech companies."