Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2000 20:10:20 -0700 (PDT)

Quote from article... 

Fertl said Patent Application number "WO 99/21415" had been filed by the firms of 

"Stem Cell Sciences" (SCS) of Australia and

"Biotransplant" of the United States. 

The Star

Newspaper

Johannesburg, South Africa

Greenpeace exposes 'human-pig' patent attempt

Vienna - The environmental organisation Greenpeace says two firms from Australia and the United States have filed a patent application for a genetic mixture of human and pig cells. 

The application to the Munich European Patents Office was for a "chimera", the biological expression for an organism built with genetically different cells. 

Greenpeace-Austria gene-technology specialist Thomas Fertl said on Thursday his sector had made the "scandalous" discovery in research in the Munich office. 

The application indicated that the firms had already transferred cell core elements from human foetuses to the ova of pigs. 

The resulting organism had survived for about a week, he said. 

Fertl said Patent Application number "WO 99/21415" had been filed by the firms of "Stem Cell Sciences" (SCS) of Australia and "Biotransplant" of the United States. 

The application was for sole user rights of the organisms created, their descendants, and for the method of gene manipulation involved. 

Fertl warned of a loophole in the current patent laws which made it probable that the applicants would actually get the patent. 

Although the European Union law banned patents on human beings, experts believed that human-animal chimeras or embryos created for therapeutical purposes would not come under the heading of "human". 

"These embryos are not defined under EU guidelines as human life meriting protection, but as biological material which can be patented", said Fertl. 

"With the patenting of life, plants, animals and humans are being put on a level with industrial products and regarded as intellectual property of the patent-holders." 

Already in February this year, Greenpeace discovered a patent application by the University of Edinburgh for human embryos. The organisation formally objected together with 10 000 other people, the spokesperson said. 

In view of the present case, Fertl urgently called on the Austrian government to press for a new, tougher, laws banning patents on all forms of life. - Sapa-DPA 

Published on the Web by IOL on 2000-10-05 12:29:32 

© Independent Online 1999. All rights reserved. IOL publishes this article in good faith but is not liable for any loss or damage caused by reliance on the information it contains. 

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