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Biotech / Medical : Incyte (INCY) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LLCF who wrote (878)	2/25/1999 4:07:00 PM
From: nigel bates	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3202

More from diadexus - biz.yahoo.com nig

To: LLCF who wrote (878)	3/2/1999 1:20:00 AM
From: Steven Rachbach	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3202

I consider the legal aspects of genomics to be the single biggest risk to the health and well-being of companies like Incyte. I know that there will be a flood of worthwhile and profitable medicines that will be generated from genetic material. Surely, if we can develop from one cell to adulthood based on our genome, there must be genes that could repair, prevent and cure many illnesses. By the way, I have over the past few weeks established a position in INCY to go along with my holdings in HGSI. Like Geoff and David, I most worry about the legalities. David stated that he is "worried about the theoretical argument...that no one should own this stuff." It does seem odd to me that material present in all human beings' cells could be patent protected. Further, there are several entities sequencing the human genome and racing to patent genes. Human Genome Science put out a press release last week that credits their Functional Genomics Program with "the discovery of more than 95% of all human genes." They claim the performance of "complete sequence analysis of the useful portion of over 9,000 of the more than 12,000 novel encoding secreted proteins." HGS further announced the "filing of patents that describe the potential medical use of more than 3,000 newly discovered human genes..." I don't even know about other genomic companies, but I am sure they are doing the same discovery and patent applications as INCY and HGSI. Are we headed for one giant fight for patents? I'm sure that multiple companies are testing genes/proteins that overlap; what will happen there? For instance, Genentech has VEGF-1 (which stimulates blood vessel formation) and HGSI has VEGF-2 (which apparently derives from the same gene plus a little extra genetic material that stimulates the production of lymphatic vessels as well). In conclusion, the science and medicine part looks great but the legal aspects concern me. Any opinions? Regards, Steve Rachbach