Cereal Gene Bank Accepts Need for Patents

news Cereal gene bank accepts need for patents... Obregon, Mexico The world’s leading maize and wheat research organization last week adopted an intellectual-property policy intended to REX DALTON ensure that its resources will remain available to scientists working for sustainable agriculture in developing nations. The international board of trustees of the Mexico-based International Maize & Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) — which holds the world’s largest maize and wheat gene bank — unanimously approved the policy to prevent private companies from claiming intellectual-property rights over Crop protection: reforms will guarantee developing countries continued access to CIMMYT’s seeds. any of its discoveries or resources. The centre fears its long-standing mission agreed to seek patent protection for its Under a 1994 agreement, CIMMYT of providing germplasm free to plant breeders resources. But the centre fears private compa- maintains designated germplasm in trust for worldwide would be threatened without the nies will exploit its openness and either patent the United Nation’s Food and Agricultural policy. CIMMYT previously did not have a a plant discovery or secure blocking patents Organization (FAO) in Rome. CIMMYT’s policy of protecting its research discoveries. that would limit its ability to improve crops. intellectual-property policy is designed to “Our desire is to ensure that inventions As an example, the organization cites the adhere to that agreement to provide desig- aren’t patented out from under the organiza- case of a Colorado company that won US nated germplasm to the international com- tion,” says Wallace Falcon, a Stanford Uni- patent rights to a type of bean grown for munity, officials said. versity economist and CIMMYT board years in Mexico and sold in California. The For discoveries associated with non-FAO chairman. firm is suing in the US District Court to designed germplasm, the CIMMYT policy CIMMYT board member Cary Fowler, a enforce its patent. Now the Mexican growers calls for analysis on a case-by-case basis. The sociologist at the Agricultural Institute of are alleging the patent is invalid. policy will cover patents, licensing agree- Norway, cautioned that this is not an effort Hope Shand, research director for the ments and/or partnerships. by the organization to “get rich” by patenting Canada-based Rural Advancement Founda- Timothy Reeves, CIMMYT’s director discoveries, but to ensure broad distribution tion International, says these patent fights are general, says: “The whole rationale behind of plant materials through a flexible policy. exactly what organizations such as CIMMYT the intellectual property policy is to keep dis- Similar steps are being considered by other should avoid. “Filing patents and defending coveries available to CIMMYT” in order to members of the Consultative Group on Inter- them is very expensive, taking scarce continue its mission of disseminating sci- national Agricultural Research (CGIAR), an resources from agriculture research,” she says. ence for sustainable agriculture. Rex Dalton umbrella organization that supports sustainable agriculture for developing nations. Last week, the Philippines-based Inter- national Rice Research Institute (IRRI) orga- nized a conference in Los Baoos of the 12- nation Council for Partnership on Rice ... as Monsanto makes rice genome public Research (CORRA), where intellectual Paris & Sydney collaboration, similar to the joint be placed in the public domain in property and possible new laws in Asia for The multinational life science completion of the Drosophila accordance with existing IRGSP rice patenting were hot topics. company Monsanto this week genome by Celera Genomics and policy.” “These [intellectual property] legal announced the first complete the publicly funded Drosophila The rice sequencing was requirements are new for many of us, but we sequencing of a crop plant Genome Project. carried out mainly by Leroy Hood have to study and introduce the necessary genome — all 12 chromosomes of The rice genome, at 400 Mb, at the University of Washington in legislation as quickly as possible,” says Joko rice (Oryza sativa). is some 37 times smaller than Seattle, under contract for Budianto, CORRA’s chairman. The company also promised wheat, and six times smaller than Monsanto. Sasaki says that the Research organizations that seek to fur- that it would make the entire maize. But identifying the position Monsanto sequence is of around ther their intellectual-property rights were sequence available, with no of genes in rice will help in finding 5X depth, and that many gaps sharply criticized by groups such as the strings attached, in the public similar genes in these crops. The remain. But merging the data with Spain-based Genetic Resources Action domain, by donating it to the public rice project, which was the 7X data from the public project International (GRAIN). International Rice Genome launched in 1998, is being led by should accelerate the completion “Pulling the rice cultures of Asia into the Sequence Project (IRGSP), a Japan with $100 million through of a ‘finished’ genome. grips of corporate intellectual-property sys- Japanese-led consortium of ten its Rice Genome Research The IRGSP’s initial target for tems is not a win–win scenario,” says publicly funded genome centres. Program. Ten million dollars is completion was 2008 at a cost of GRAIN’s director Henk Hobbelink. “Farm- Takuji Sasaki, director of also being contributed each by $200 million, but in a bid to ers will lose control over their production Japan’s Rice Genome Research China, the United States and India. shorten this Japan has increased systems and biodiversity will suffer.” Program, the lead member of the The US effort is publicly its support for rice genomics But CIMMYT trustee Fowler notes that consortium, told Nature that he funded through the Institute for three-fold, ironically in response research organizations have little choice in the applauded the Monsanto decision. Genomic Research. Monsanto to the threat that Celera and other rapidly evolving world of plant genomics. A He argued that the incorporation says that its data will be sent to companies might get their first year ago, he said, it would have been highly of Monsanto’s database is an IRGSP, and “as each segment of (see Nature 401, 102; 1999). unlikely that the CIMMYT board would have exemplary public–private sector the sequence is completed, it will Declan Butler & Peter Pockley