To: Craig Lacy who wrote (775 ) 11/5/1998 12:25:00 AM From: Rocketman Read Replies (1) | Respond to
I don't agree with you. This goes way beyond rights for gene therapy. I discussed this very topic with a very knowledgeable biotech patent attorney today, who specializes in genomic patents. The key is your statement: "use the genomic information". Use of the information is protected by the patent, even for research purposes, even by academics. The problem becomes finding out about secret usage of the information. However, is it worth it to a pharma to risk losing rights to products in development if INCY becomes aware that a secret infringement occurs, or to pony up for the rights to the information. Also, the chances of going after academics for infringement is slight, but if they try to commercialize what they discover through their research then they make it worth pursuing. Of course this will all have to eventually be sorted out by the courts, but my guess is that INCY would prevail. There is a clear interest to having this sort of information patentable as it creates a protectable right to exclusivity to encourage the development of products. That is one of the main ideas behind patents. To give a short term monopoly to encourage development. One of the main reasons pharma companies won't pursue development of herbal drugs (marijuana for example) is that after spending millions to do clinicals to prove they work, the Pharma who spent the cash can't protect the markets enough to pay for their costs versus the competitors who can jump in and market with no research costs. By disclosing the patent though, you are giving competitors information that they can use to try and engineer around and improve upon what you've done, which is what you trade off for revealing your secrets. Make no mistake, this is a major breakthrough for INCY and all genomic companies. The value of their information and molecular portfolios just went up big time. You can bet that the intellectual property and risk management departments of the pharmas are taking notice and formulating how to proceed. This patent will also make the national press big time and be drawing a bunch of notice to INCY. You can bet that Science and Nature will be making note of it, along with a ton of other journals and that a big stink will ensue by academics who hate the idea of genomic information being proprietary. This will do nothing but keep it in the limelight longer. I look for a long steady climb in INCY's shareprice as the news stirs up demand as the meaning settles in.
