Australia's gene patent bill has far-reaching and unintended consequences, says AusBiotech

A Patent Amendment (Human Genes and Biological Materials) Bill 2010 - was introduced to the Australian Senate last month and immediately referred to a new Senate Inquiry (with the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee). The deadline for comment is looming early in the New Year and those with an interest are urged to act now, says the nation’s biotech trade group AusBiotech.

If the legislative amendment is progressed in its current form, it would have far-reaching and unintended consequences across the industry, impacting almost every member, including those developing novel therapies, tests, vaccines and even medical device companies with drug delivery platforms. “It is critical that we now demonstrate the consequences and effects of a ban on the patenting of genes and other biological materials to government, parliamentarians, policy-makers and the general public with real examples and evidence,” AusBiotech warns.

The Amendment would exclude from patentability "biological materials…..whether isolated or purified or not and however made, which are identical or substantially identical to such materials as they exist in nature.”