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Technology Stocks : John, Mike & Tom's Wild World of Stocks -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: wlheatmoon who wrote (451)	3/14/2000 12:28:00 PM
From: John Pitera	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2850

Thanks for pointing out the catalyst for the BTK.X downdraft geocities.com maybe they may have more life, if this is a news related sell-off??? ---------------------------- text of YHOO -Rueters link ---------------------------- Tuesday March 14, 10:20 am Eastern Time FOCUS-Clinton, Blair want free access to genes map (Expands, adds background on private research) By Dominic Evans LONDON, March 14 (Reuters) - Scientists around the world should have free access to research on the mapping of human genes, the United States and Britain said on Tuesday. U.S. President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair said research into the human genetic blueprint was ``one of the most significant scientific projects of all time.' ``To realise full promise of the research, raw fundamental data on the human genome including the human DNA sequence and its variations, should be made freely available to scientists everywhere,' the two leaders said in a joint statement. Their call came a week after U.S. company Celera Genomics (NYSE:CRA - news), racing to become the first firm to sequence all the genes in the body, said it was concerned that if it shared information with publicly funded research its data would be used by rivals. Celera is one of a number of private companies which plan to patent and otherwise license their information on human genes for profit. It has been in talks to enter into partnership with the publicly funded team of international researchers working on the Human Genome Project, but the talks appeared to fall apart last week over its demands to retain exclusive commercial rights of distribtuion of any merged products. Craig Venter, the head of Celera, was one of the initiators of the Human Genome Project, which was set up in 1995 to map every gene in the human body and make the information freely available. Clinton and Blair praised the Project's own policy to release ``raw fundamental information' about the human DNA sequence and its variants rapidly into the public domain. Open access to information on the human genome would ``promote discoveries that will reduce the burden of disease, improve health around the world, and enhance the quality of life for all humankind,' they added. ``We commend other scientists around the world to adopt this policy,' they added. While calling for the gene data to be openly available, the two leaders stressed that inventions which built on that information should be protected by law. ``Intellectual property protection for gene-based inventions will also play in important role in stimulating the development of important new health care products,' they said. Blair's spokesman said the joint statement was intended to send a signal about how important Clinton and Blair considered the research to be. He said British firms were responsible for one third of the work in gene sequencing efforts and U.S. firms were leading the research work. He said the Human Genome Project expects to publish a draft ``map' of the human genetic blueprint in the spring, with a full picture emerging by 2003. Celera says it will be finished later this year. Clinton was due to give a speech on the subject in the United States at 1930 GMT, Blair's spokesman said.