Law under the Microscope

Brazil Signs Biotech Safety Law

After months (ok, years) of struggling over whether and how to allow genetically modified crops to be planted in its land, Brazil has just signed a biotech safety law that will allow for such crops, with certain protections. Monsanto is a winner from this law, as it wants to plant more of its Roundup Ready soybeans there.  On Tuesday, Monsanto signed a royalty accord with soybean growers in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, one of the larger agriculture centers in Brazil.

With Brazil's national technical commission for biosafety (CTNBio) already having approved the introduction of Monsanto's anti-boll weevil cotton, Bollgard, a week before, it looks like Monsanto is taking no time to start research and production.  It might not be surprising that Monsanto's stock price has also increased by a couple percentage points over the last couple days (MON). 

India Contemplates New Drug Patent Laws

India has introduced the long-awaited legislation that will bring it more in line with the World Trade Organization rules about manufacturing generic versions of drugs. Right now, India only grants patents based on the manufacturing process and not on the resulting product itself. The proposed legislation would make the Indian government issue patents on all new products after developed after 1995.

The legislation worries a couple different groups of people...

UN Backs Nonbinding Resolution to Ban Cloning

After a couple of years of debate on the issue and killing two competing proposals last fall regarding a stance on genetic cloning, the U.N. voted to adopt a nonbinding resolution that urges its members to enact legislation that would prohibit all human cloning. As may be guessed, each side is declaring victory. The US officially had been pushing for a binding resolution for all members states to ban human cloning, and the administration praised the final result saying,

"The United States and the international community have now spoken clearly that human cloning is an affront to human dignity."

Meanwhile, Britain had supported allowing each member state to decide for itself and also declared victory.

UK health secretary John Reid yesterday said that the UN declaration is "non-binding and will make no difference whatsoever to the position of stem cell research in the UK: therapeutic cloning will continue to be allowed. The UK remains 'open for business' in stem cell research."

One part of the declaration that kinda made me raise an eyebrow is, among its general language about protecting human life and prohibiting genetic research that is counter to human dignity, language calling on nations to "prevent the exploitation of women in the application of life sciences."  Now, I'm female. I'm against the exploitation of women. But sticking that among other language talking about the science research makes me wonder exactly what they're referring to (please pardon my ending this sentence in a preposition). If they mean they want to make sure women don't turn into baby machines a la The Handmaid's Tale, I'm in agreement. It just sounds weird to have it stuck in there (I mean, don't they also want to make sure there is no exploitation of men in the application of life sciences?). I'm waiting for the resolution to be published on the UN site to see what other discussion there is surrounding this part of the document.

In India, Could Be Long Wait for Patent Protection

As I noted yesterday, the patent laws in India were recently amended (subject to ratification in February) so that any foreign patent filed after January 1, 2005 would be recognized.  Apparently so many foreign companies are rushing to get their patents on file in India (to avoid generics and knockoffs), that the postal system has been overwhelmed with as many as 12,000 applications. The ministry of commerce in India is doing what it can just to process the application (much less review and respond to them). 

Of course, the generic drug companies in India are already looking for the loopholes in the new law...

EU Members Agree to Allow Scientists to be Mobile

In a terrific show of unity to bring us into the weekend, the heads of 10 European countries have agreed to allow researchers to take some of their research funds with them to another country. In a region where it is so easy to move about from country to country and with tremendous cooperation (and attempts to lure scientists from other countries), this is probably what is needed to stop some of the concerns of scientists who start research in one place and then are offered more labs or money in another country to continue it and stop the feared "EU brain drain".

Indian Pharma Companies Urge Space for Generics in IP Laws

As noted in a blog post on Thursday, India intends to introduce its new intellectual property (and other) policies in January that are focused on the biotech industry. The Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) is urging lawmakers not to implement new patent laws that would hinder the development of generic drugs.

India to Create and Publish Biotech Policy in January 2005

As noted in an earlier blawg report, India is revamping its biotech policies and related laws to support and ameliorate its biotech industry. The new policies should be forthcoming in January, 2005 and include a variety of efforts, such as new tax and corporate laws, improvement of the approval process for importing and using equipment, and bringing its intellectual property laws in line with the WTO agreements, especially TRIPS (Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights).

UN Delays Vote on Cloning

Pardon the quick blog post on this topic (more to come later, but I am still traveling with spotty time for 'netting). The legal committee of the UN finished its debate on different proposals regarding human cloning last Friday without taking an official vote, thus delaying taking any position on the issue.

The US is pushing for a total ban, along with about 60 other member states, stating that cloning erodes the dignity of human life. Another proposal, entered by Belgium and supported by about 20 member states and Kofi Annan, would prohibit human cloning but allow each state to decide on options related to therapeutic cloning and research.

It is not immediately clear when the final vote will take place, and UN committee members deny that the US presidential race hae anything to do with the delay. Stay tuned to hear more about the proposals entered and how the member states come down on the issue.

Spain Researchers Concerned About Lack of Funds

My apologies for the relative lack of posts - been traveling overseas and it hasn't been so easy to find time and get online. The dearth of flu vaccine in the US has been making news in Continental Europe, primarily pointing out how the US system of manufacturing vaccines is broken and needs some tweaking. For instance: articles in the paper here suggest the US emulate the British system of having multiple manufacturers to produce vaccines, rather than 2. This is a fairly good idea, considering in the past 5 years, the US has seen shortages of crucial vaccines such as tetanus and measles because the production plants were not able to make the necessary output. If one of the plants is contaminated, at least there is a better chance that the other 4 or 5 will be able to make up the shortage.

Also making news here and back in the States is the concern by Spanish researchers that the government is not going to live up to its promises regarding research funding. This sort of issue seems to be fairly common to most countries, though, as each interest group (be it social services, science researchers, interior depts, etc.) fight to make sure that the budgetary promises are fulfilled. What is odd about the recently announced Spanish budget is that the increase in spending for R&D will be doled out in 8-year interest-free loans. Isn't that a bit contrary to the usual R&D spending, especially for a socialist party? It sounds like something the current US administration would heartily support, but is surprising for the new Socialist President of Spain to implement (though I do need to brush up on my political science studies).

Bangladesh to Implement GM Crop Production

Bangladesh is one of the fastest-growing countries in the world, and is starting to have trouble keeping up with the food demand that brings. In order to produce more crops that are drought and blight resistant, it is introducing GM crops. The National Biotechnology Policy drafted by Bangladesh's Minister of Science and Information & Communication Technology calls for fairly strict regulation of any GM crops and for further research into the impact such crops may make on smaller countries like Bangladesh.