Immunocompetent

Think antibodies might be useful to prevent or treat bird flu?  Better get out your checkbook, because a company based in San Francisco says it owns all H5N1 antibodies, including all human (and some animal) antibodies against the critical HA gene of the H5N1 "bird flu" virus. The claims are made in an international patent application published on September 18th.

But wait, it gets even more disgusting: The company also specifically claims DNA (and amino acids) taken from at least 3 Vietnamese survivors of H5N1. The DNA, which encodes antibodies, is contained in human cell lines established from the victims' blood.

If granted, the patent application could have profound effects in limiting research on antibody treatments against the potentially pandemic H5N1 type of influenza. It could also earn its owners huge profits from the blood of 3 (or 4) Vietnamese persons who were nearly killed by the virus. Who exactly wants to profit?  Well, one of the would-be owners of H5N1 antibodies and pieces of Vietnamese people is none other than a co-founder of Chiron and former Director of Novartis. Sadly, there is no remedial ethics class to which to send these perverted patent applicants. (More)

This isn't the really interesting news I promised the other day (that's still being vetted elsewhere); but it's pretty darn telling.

(Above: What it would cost different regions to stockpile Tamiflu under Roche's plan.)

Roche and Glaxo, with their flu antivirals Tamiflu and Relenza (respectively), are offering us a little preview of what's going to happen with pandemic vaccines (and other biologicals) if the patent trend continues unabated.  What happens, in a phrase, is that the rich get treated and the poor get dead.

Today's news brings an item about Roche and Glaxo's hawking of their drugs to corporations for private stockpiles.  Think of it as a sort of pandemic "health insurance", mega-corporation style.  (More)

Although some, like US and European governments, would like to pretend it isn't happening, it's no secret that there has been a huge increase in international patent applications claiming bits and pieces of H5N1 viruses and related vaccines and other treatments.

The overall trends can be monitored by searching on PatentScope, a free international patent application database published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). If you are new to patents, it might be intimidating at first - patent talk is not plain English - but with a bit of experimentation, searching PatentScope is something anyone can learn to do.

There are three such searches that I have been monitoring for nearly two years now. The results aren't pretty, and they are getting worse.  The tidal wave of H5N1 patent claims shows no signs of abating, and is on track in 2008 to meet or exceed 2007, which was already the biggest year of such patent claims on record. 

The trend is clear: An emerging "patent thicket" threatens to impair H5N1 research and make vaccines and other treatments unaffordable. But don't count on the US or European governments doing anything about this - they're still in denial mode.

 (More)

Unless you're a bean breeder, farmer, or epicure, the little yellow beans at left might not look very interesting. But those humble frijoles are the subject of a lengthy patent dispute that may be headed for the US Supreme Court. And it's story has many important parallels with the current debate about H5N1 patents.

We’ll start with the bottom line lessons: (More)

If you think oil speculators are an ethically-challenged crowd, consider pandemic squatters.  There are many examples. For one of the ugliest and most audacious, we turn to Finland.

Finns are usually an inoffensive lot, but it seems that a few of their number are hoping for the big one to come.  A big pandemic, that is.  And they're putting their money on H5N2. Helsinki-based Remedal, a tiny company with no apparent independent R&D capacity, has filed for patent on basically all injected or intranasal human vaccines containing an H5 and an N2 antigen (i.e. against H5N1 recombined with 'normal' human H3N2).

For good measure, Remedal further specifically claims such a vaccine using three HA genes that are WHO GISN materials: A/Hong Kong/213/2003, A/Vietnam/1194/2004, and A/Vietnam/1203/2004. (More)