[Ip-health] FT scienceblog- Manchester Manifesto asks: Who owns science?

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Manchester Manifesto asks: Who owns science?

November 26, 2009 12:01am

by Clive Cookson <http://blogs.ft.com/scienceblog/author/clivecookson/>

A familiar issue in innovation policy - patenting and the
commercialisation of scientific knowledge - resurfaces today in a
so-called Manchester Manifesto.

The manifesto has 50 signatories, led by the moral philosopher John
Harris and Nobel Prize winning biologist John Sulston, both from the
Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation (iSEI) at the University of
Manchester <http://www.manchester.ac.uk/isei> . Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel
Laureate and Chair of Manchester's Brooks World Poverty Institute, is
also among the signatories.

The 'Manchester Manifesto' calls for a reassessment of the current
system of patents and intellectual property regulated by national and
international laws. The signatories say the system is in desperate need
of change because it excludes poorer people from access to essential
medicines and expertise.

They say profit should not override the needs of the public, even though
it is currently the primary reward for research and development.

Sulston, who was a leader of the International Human Genome project team
while working at the Wellcome Trust's Sanger Centre, has been a vocal
critic of a Myriad Genetics, the US biopharmaceutical company, for
patenting of two genes closely associated with breast and ovarian
cancer.

"It shocks many people when they realise that even our genes fall under
intellectual property law," Sulston says. "Genes are naturally occurring
things, not inventions, and part of humanity's rich heritage."

While these are well-worn arguments from liberal bio-ethicists, they
deserve another outing.

http://blogs.ft.com/scienceblog/2009/11/26/manchester-manifesto-asks-who
-owns-science/