This article on New Scientist reports on the attempt by a company to restrict the use of the sequence they made of the rice genome. People are kicking up a fuss, saying the sequence should be released for the good of mankind, and so it should, but it can't work like that. This is simply because if the government forces Syngenta to release the information, there will obviously be no incentive for them, and other companies, to invest the large amounts of money to sequence the genomes of other useful crops and animals.
I think the best plan would be for the World Food Programme to set up a plan outlining which genomes it would be beneficial to sequence, given the necessary funds by the governments. The WFP could then go about sequencing the genome, either by contracting the job out to the relevant companies or perhaps by constructing a purpose-built institution for the work. This need not be the procedure for all genomes, just ones which would be deemed by the WFP to be important to humanity. Some system where companies would submit for approval lists of the genomes they intend to sequence privately is not difficult to envisage.
Your thoughts?
[ March 20, 2002, 02:47: Message edited by: Jernau Morat Gurgeh ]
Posted by Vogon Poet (Member # 393) on :
Well, if it can be done once, it can be done again. The company's exclusive hold on the info will be fleeting at best; sooner or later, sopmeone will either find technology has advanced to the point it's a lot easier to do, or will just feel the expense is worth it nevertheless. You could even do it, then hold Syngenta to ransom by threatening to make it public!
Besides, presumably the genome information is intnded for use in genetic modification? Any company with the resources to utilise such knowledge probably has the expertise to obtain the genome themselves: No-one, not even other companies, is going to want to have to pay someone else for what amounts to the rights to rice - a rice license, if you will - every time they want to play with it.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
But a company can get far more money out of a product if they don't have to do the R&D.
Posted by Vogon Poet (Member # 393) on :
Depends on the price and duration of the rice license, then.