Sir, - Joe McCartin MEP suggests (July 23rd) that inventors in the field of medical research would, presumably for financial reasons, simply move their inventions to the US or Japan if their work was not covered by patent law. He also asserts that without such a law, gene research will become more secretive, to the detriment of people in our part of the world.
To my certain knowledge, gained from years of experience working with inventors of medical devices, financial gain is not the foremost concern of the professors and doctors working in the field. In all cases that I am aware of, the advancement of medical science and the esteem of their peers comes before monetary consideration.
Until very recently there was an open climate regarding the publishing of medical research work. This was to the benefit of humankind. It is the intrusion of commercial interests with their insistence on patent protection that is creating a stultifying research climate. Despite patent protection, the present position in the US is not to be envied. Washington's FDA accepts that American patients are sometimes receiving therapies that are two or three generations behind those available in Europe. There are many reasons for this state of affairs and they are being urgently addressed.
I expect that within a year the Global Harmonisation Task Force's recommendations for medical product standards will be ratified world wide. This will be a great step forward. Current patent law thinking will be a stumbling block.
There must be a better way to reward inventors and their supporting institutes. Perhaps we could devise a method of rewarding inventors of beneficial devices with civic honours and a comfortable living. Perhaps new medical developments should be subject to a new type of patent that would benefit from the inevitable followon improvements that others will devise and that would merit separate patent benefits. The prime considerations should be openness in research and the efficient delivery of better treatment to patients. - Yours, etc
From Joseph Hackett
Greystones, Co Wicklow.