SARS patent battle heating up
Firms in Hong Kong, U.S. and Canada seeking patents for treatments for respiratory disease.
May 5, 2003: 7:17 AM EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Scientists from the United States, Canada and Hong Kong are seeking patents related to the sometimes deadly respiratory infection known as SARS, according to a published report Monday.
The patent applications are believed to claim rights in nearly any diagnostic test, drug or vaccine development to cope with the outbreak and have sparked divisions among researchers over whether discovery of the virus is even worthy of a patent and whether it is appropriate to seek commercial gain from it, the Wall Street Journal reported.
A few gene-based diagnostic tests are already on the market and some major companies, such as Abbott Laboratories Inc. and Roche Holding AG, are moving to manufacture their own versions.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed it filed at least one provisional patent application related to SARS, and Canada's British Columbia Cancer Agency said it has filed an application in the United States claiming commercial rights on the genetic sequence of the virus that causes SARS, the Journal reported.
The University of Hong Kong has filed patents related to SARS, the Journal quoted Hailson Yu, deputy managing director of Versitech Ltd., which handles the university's intellectual property.
U.S. biotech companies are also getting into the SARS patent race, the paper reported, including the CombiMatrix unit of Acacia Research Corp (ACRI: Research, Estimates).
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