AS MUCH as an eighth of the human genome could be patented in one go. Last
week British company Oxford GlycoSciences announced that it had filed for
patents on 4000 human proteins and the genes that code for them.
They’re all proteins linked with illness, spotted by comparing healthy and
diseased tissue. “We think it’s the biggest group of disease-specific proteins
anyone’s ever filed for,” says Michael Kranda, chief executive officer at OGS.
The entire human genome only contains an estimated 30,000 genes.
Opponents of gene patenting are appalled. “It’s pretty shocking,” says Helen
Wallace of the British lobby group GeneWatch. “It’s another stop in the selfish,
immoral race to own human genes,” she says. Kranda rejects this. He says that
the company’s application breaks no new ground. “These are the same kind of
patents everyone’s filed for the past ten years,” he says.
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But Wallace says the patents will discourage other teams from doing research
on these proteins. “It means that other companies and research institutes can’t
develop treatments based on the same genes without being challenged by OGS,” she
says.
And OGS plans to guard its “crown jewels” jealously. If anyone develops drugs
based on the patented proteins without permission, the company intends to pursue
them for royalties. “Our goal is to keep ownership,” says Kranda. “We’ll be
happy to license some targets to those who want to spend money pursuing them,”
he adds.
OGS made its discoveries by meticulously comparing the proteins churned out
by healthy and diseased tissue. The company has discovered many markers or
antigens that are unique to diseased tissue such as cancers. Through exclusive
collaborations with other companies, OGS hopes to develop antibodies and drugs
that attack and destroy diseased tissue by homing in on these antigens or other
distinctive proteins. “Our goal is to develop drugs,” Kranda says.
The company’s priorities are breast cancer and various blood and lymph
cancers. But it has also identified rogue proteins linked to neurological
disorders and fungal infections.
