Here’s a dispatch from our U.K. colleague, Gautam Naik, on a ruling by Europe’s top court over patenting stem-cell research.
Europe’s top court ruled that any research involving the destruction of human embryos cannot be patented, a major setback for stem-cell science on the continent.
While the ruling by the European Court of Justice doesn’t prevent scientists from experimenting with cells derived from human embryos, it removes a key incentive for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to back stem cell science. Stem cells obtained from embryos can become all other cells in the body, which makes them a potential tool for repairing and regenerating diseased organs and tissue.
“Companies now will not invest in these technologies because they cannot safeguard their investment” via patents, said stem-cell researcher Oliver Bruestle of the University of Bonn, in an interview following the ruling on Tuesday. The case centered on a technique he invented to make nerve cells from human embryonic cells. “It’s a bitter pill for all of us to swallow.”
Dr. Bruestle’s 1997 patent was later challenged by Greenpeace in Germany on the basis of a European law that bans the patenting of inventions whose commercialization violates public order or “morality.” A German court decided that Dr. Bruestle’s patent was invalid. After he appealed the decision, Germany’s federal court referred questions about the case to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
An advocate there handed down a legal decision which has now been largely upheld. There are no further legal appeals available to Dr. Bruestle.
Greenepeace has long argued that patents should only be granted to human inventions, and has opposed patents on plants, animals, genes and smaller parts of DNA.
“We’re not against research on human embryonic stem cells,” said Christoph Then, a spokesman for the group. “But this involves the commercialization of the human body which we are against.”
Stem cells are typically derived from 80-to-100-cell embryos — each the size of pinhead — that are left over from fertility treatments and donated for research. The process of extracting stem cells from the embryo destroys it, which some people believe is tantamount to destroying a human life.
The latest decision means that any technique invented by European scientists that involves human embryonic cells can now be safely copied by rival scientists without fear of violating European intellectual property laws. However, European scientists can still get patents to protect their work in non-European markets.