Sir

Thomas et al. present data showing that the largest single category of patents published in 1995 that included claims for human DNA sequences was in the area of genetic diagnostics, and that 40 per cent of the patents they identified originated from US public-sector institutions (Nature 388, 709; 1997).

We take exception to their conclusion that public-sector researchers realize that “patenting optimizes the chances of patients receiving benefits from their scientific research”.

The more likely explanation for this observation is that researchers and their institutions realize that they can cash in on these discoveries from windfall profits from research supported in part by the taxpayers.

Rather than optimizing patient benefit, these patents threaten to curtail research, raise the price and lower the availability of testing, threaten patient privacy because of potential litigation and insert a troubling and unseemly profit motive into the dissemination and use of genetic testing services.

Thomas et al. also state that industry will not invest in treatments without adequate patent protection, but there is no reason to believe that patenting of basic information about the human genome — particularly about naturally occurring human genomic sequences and the association of mutation with disease — is necessary to promote downstream therapeutic development. To our minds, the risks of these patents far outweigh the potential benefits, and they should be prohibited.