Timothy Caulfield, LLM, FRSC

Title: Are Gene Patents the Problem?: A Look at Emerging Evidence

For decades there has been concern that gene patents are hurt the research environment - particularly upstream academic work. Indeed, patenting has been on of the most dominant areas of ethical and legal inquiry in the field of genetics. In general, the concern is that patents lead to a more secretive ethos and make research more expensive and inefficient.  This concern, often called the "anti-commons" effect, has led to a great deal of policy debate and some concrete policy actions.  But do gene patents really hurt the genetic research?
Emerging evidence from throughout the world indicates that this may not be the case and that our policy efforts have been focused on the wrong concern.  In this presentation I will: 1) review available empirical data on the impact of gene patents, including relevant work by our team at the University of Alberta; 2) argue that the real issue, at least in the context of data withholding, is commercialization pressure more broadly; and 3) suggest that existing policy efforts should be more evidence based and refocused.