Genome Data Announcement Fuels Stock Plunge, Misunderstanding

Extract

The Nasdaq stock index took its second steepest dive ever March 14, after President Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair issued a joint statement affirming that human genome data should be freely available to all.

The biotech companies on the Nasdaq lost tens of billions of dollars in value when skittish investors interpreted the Anglo-American announcement as bad news for private-sector genome research, despite the two leaders’ assurance that intellectual property rights would be protected. The stock plunge highlighted the misunderstanding about gene patenting among the public—starting with federal officials and the national news media.

The Associated Press and Reuters wire services quoted White House press secretary Joe Lockhart, who said at a briefing that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has decided scientists cannot obtain patents for individual genes, but that “if you develop a vaccine or something off of the genetic data, that will continue to have intellectual property rights.” And Dan Rather reported on CBS that the agreement “means no individual scientist or company could patent the recipe of life, though they could patent genetic medicines or products they invent.” So it’s not surprising that readers and viewers came away with the impression that gene patents would be banned.