Research should not be docked to the WARF
Sacramento Bee (California)
Embryonic stem cell research faces numerous challenges, including hype about its medical potential and legal roadblocks erected by opponents.
Until Monday, there was a third obstacle: restrictive patents that forced scientists to establish licensing agreements before working with embryonic stem cells.
Starting in 1998, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation has maintained patent claims on both the method used to isolate embryonic stem cells and the cells themselves. The foundation, known as WARF in scientific circles, secured these patents after a University of Wisconsin researcher was the first to successfully isolate these cells in 1998.
Ever since, scientists have complained that WARF was stifling research. WARF‘s stance also could have been costly to taxpayers, forcing researchers to pay licensing fees every time they worked with embryonic stem cells.
But WARF announced Monday it would not seek to collect licensing fees from scientists receiving grants from California’s stem cell research institute or other sources. The foundation hasn’t waived its claim on royalties for therapies that are commercialized, but the move ends an impediment to research and is long overdue.
Credit goes to John Simpson of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, a Santa Monica non-profit. In July, Simpson and his group filed an official challenge to three WARF patents, with support from Jeanne Loring, a researcher at the Burnham Institute in La Jolla. They make a strong case that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office should never have issued the patents.
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine — apparently unwilling to pick a fight with WARF — hasn’t joined the patent challenge. Now, ironically, it may benefit from the activism of Simpson and Loring.
