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Ethics is not the only touchy area for stem-cell research A patent fight is also possible. A California company holds rights to technology some say belongs in the public domain. By Paul Jacobs KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE SAN JOSE, Calif. - A storm is brewing over ownership rights to the promising but controversial technology behind embryonic stem-cell research, which got a boost Thursday when President Bush cleared the way for limited federal funding of the research. Geron Corp., a small but aggressive biotechnology company in Menlo Park, Calif., appears to hold the dominant position by virtue of a patent licensing agreement with the University of Wisconsin. That is where in 1998 a team of scientists led by James A. Thomson first excised cells from discarded early-stage embryos in a way that keeps the cells alive and multiplying almost indefinitely. Scientists hope those stem cells can be coaxed into forming tissues to treat a host of intractable human disorders, including spinal-cord injury, Parkinson's disease, heart disease, and diabetes. Critics have questioned the ethics of destroying embryos even for such a laudable purpose. The looming patent disputes could become as contentious as the ethical debate. In addition to the Wisconsin scientists, several companies and academic research centers have produced embryonic stem cells and are questioning the scope of the patents held by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the university's patenting arm. "The platform technology of embryonic stem cells really does belong in the public domain," said Martin F. Pera, an associate professor at Australia's Monash University, who worked with colleagues in Israel and Singapore to produce embryonic stem cells just a few months after the Wisconsin researchers did so in the United States. "As I understand what an invention is, this discovery is not an invention." But that is not the view of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which issued two far-ranging patents covering the stem-cell technology to the Wisconsin foundation. Patent applications in Europe and other parts of the world are pending. The foundation and Geron, which paid for most of the human-cell-line work at Wisconsin, argue that others who develop commercial uses of embryonic stem cells will probably be infringing the Wisconsin patents and will have to come to the university to negotiate rights. But the company has not taken anyone to court for infringing any of the patents that it holds or licenses from others, said Geron's chief financial officer, David L. Greenwood. "We can't police the marketplace all the time from day one," Greenwood said. "It's prohibitively expensive to do that." Moreover, Greenwood argues that it is in the company's interest, as well as society's, to make the technology widely available to scientists. "We can't pursue every good idea, and that is why we are big proponents of getting these materials into people's hands." The Wisconsin foundation has set up the WiCell Research Institute to do just that by making any one of its five human stem-cell lines - each derived from an individual embryo - available to academic researchers for $5,000, an amount intended to cover the institute's costs. About 30 research centers have acquired cells; 100 applications are under review. A number of biotech companies could be affected by the President's decision on federal funding, even if they are not themselves working with embryonic stem cells. On Thursday, share prices of many of the companies soared in anticipation of a favorable outcome. Geron stock, for example, climbed 16 percent to close at $14.94. Yesterday, those stocks fell, however. Analysts said the technology was too far from being commercial to be a good investment bet. Geron's stock fell 99 cents to $13.95. Shares of Stemcells, a company that aims to create cell-based treatments of diseases of the central nervous system, liver and pancreas, fell $1.61 to finish at $4.84. Embryonic stem cells are wonderfully versatile, retaining the ability of the embryo to form all of the more than 200 cell types in the human body, although they cannot form a complete human being. The stem cells are derived from a four- or five-day-old embryo, which contains about 250 cells arranged into a tiny, hollow sphere surrounding a smaller clump of cells. The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation holds the embryonic stem-cell patents. Geron has an exclusive license on six "cell lineages" - six types of cells that can be generated by the stem cells. And it has an option to pick up a similar exclusive license on any of the other 200 or more cell types by a certain date, which neither the company nor the university foundation will reveal. SOURCE: The Philadelphia Inquirer http://inq.philly.com/content/inquirer/2001/08/11/business/PATENT11.htm * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn