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The Enclosure Acts, revisited.
Oct. 22nd, 2002 06:19 amAccording to this now well-circulated story, anyone in British Columbia wanting screening for the two most common inherited breast-cancer-disposing factors will have to be sent out of the state, as the BC government has been leaned on by thieving bastards Myriad Genetics, who have US patents covering them.
Interesting points here:
1. Patents on what is effectively raw sequence data are, of course, bad and wrong.
2. Myriad didn't actually discover BRCA2 - we did, here at the Sanger. But they got an application in based on having something in writing first. They didn't actually even find it independently - they got inside data from someone who was working here at the time.
3. Here at the Sanger we adhere to the Bermuda Principles - all data will be published on the net for free and unfettered access within 24 hours (barring equipment failure). No attempts to legally encumber these data will be made.
4. It would be easy to get angry at the individuals responsible for this - and I would definitely encourage you all to do so - but it is more important to blame the system that encourages (indeed, demands) that people ride roughshod over all other considerations in pursuit of Shareholder Value, and ignores all interests other than the corporate.
Interesting points here:
1. Patents on what is effectively raw sequence data are, of course, bad and wrong.
2. Myriad didn't actually discover BRCA2 - we did, here at the Sanger. But they got an application in based on having something in writing first. They didn't actually even find it independently - they got inside data from someone who was working here at the time.
3. Here at the Sanger we adhere to the Bermuda Principles - all data will be published on the net for free and unfettered access within 24 hours (barring equipment failure). No attempts to legally encumber these data will be made.
4. It would be easy to get angry at the individuals responsible for this - and I would definitely encourage you all to do so - but it is more important to blame the system that encourages (indeed, demands) that people ride roughshod over all other considerations in pursuit of Shareholder Value, and ignores all interests other than the corporate.
