Immunocompetent

It would be hard to be more "in your face" than what the US National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control are doing with patent claims to their new H5N1 DNA vaccine.

But right there on the front page it's laid out in black and white:

Well, it doesn't literally say that; but this graphic appears:

The vaccine that is the exemplary embodiment of the invention contains the HA gene of A/Indonesia/05/05 and/or the NA, M2, and MP genes from the same strain.

How the CDC, which is a WHO Collaborating Centre, can simultaneously:

 a) Claim it is not patenting WHO materials; and,
 b) Blast Indonesia for "harming global public health [security]"; and,
 c) Patent Indonesian viruses,

is one the miracles of modern scientific doublespeak. Talk about two-faced!  No wonder Jakarta is hopping mad. But it gets even worse...

Get this:  Adding insult to injury, the patent application designates Indonesia as a country where the US intends to pursue the patent. The CDC - a WHO Collaborting Centre - patenting an Indonesian virus in Indonesia.  (As a practical matter, patent applicants dont always follow through on these country designations, but one never knows...)

And: The patent application claims similar DNA vaccines built around Thai, Chinese, and Korean H5N1 strains.

Needless to say, Uncle Sam will not be sharing patent rights and writing royalty checks to Indonesia if this works, nor will Indonesia have a say in where and how and at what cost the company that actually produces this (if it works) sells the vaccine.

It's difficult to imagine that a company would want to sell the vaccine to poor Indonesians when it can extract top dollar from rich Americans and Europeans if a pandemic comes.

Bottom Line: Indonesia gave WHO the virus, the CDC and NIH are patenting the virus, and Indonesia is S.O.L. when it comes to benefits.

Here's the full front page:

Say you're the Indonesian Health Minister.  Do you think you're getting a fair shake?