Wretches and Genes: We Come For You

It was established by California voters to accelerate stem cell related research. WARFs actions and demands seemed to mimic that of Myriad or even that of General Motors, Exxon Mobile or Goldman Sachs, where it stopped advancing it claims only after caving into the pressure of public opinion and the threats by the NIH to use its march-in claims retained under the Bayh-Dole Act.

Even some of the most highly esteemed institutions are showing psychological characteristics that remind us of the plutocrats on Wall Street. To extend its Axel Transformation patents (which claimed a scientific method to introduce foreign proteins into nucleated cells), Columbia University has worked behind the public view in successfully asking for Patent Office continuations. They even went as far as lobbying a US senator to add an amendment to a completely unrelated bill to achieve its goal. With the risk of losing over $50 million in revenues, the primary role of universities to foster innovation, transfer knowledge and improve social welfare are thrown out for short-term profits and institutional gain. The financial stake that universities now have shows how much academia has drunk from the poison chalice of greed, which former GE spokesman Ronald Reagan said was simply good for us. Like the most aggressive form of cancer, with enough pressure and incentives the public institutions entrusted with the future of scientific progress and our tax dollars can use its power and responsibility to betray the public good for the sake of itself (which was also the base story line of Walter White in the Breaking Bad saga).

With its inclination towards the private sphere and the spirit of individualism, Joly notes that while most developed countries rely on patents, such actions is more likely to be structurally inherent in the U.S. than in other developed nations where the ideals of universal coverage are stronger. Though even in the Canadian context, the commercialization of scientific research remains differentially successful and is largely concentrated in a handful of universities, he further states in a policy brief for Genome Canada.

For those without an army of lobbyists or massive tax dollar funding, patents are perhaps the only way to have a shot at success in the biotech industry. Zahl argues that this is especially the case for start-ups and spin-offs that lack the resources to protect a new drug via the drug approval process, where in the post-Myriad era for biotech entrepreneurs the role of patents can take up an ever-important role.

While the odds have long been stacked against entrepreneurs in the science market, with the modest victory over Myriad and other biotech giants a fresh wave of modern and forward thinking entrepreneurs are needed more than ever. Thus, the rise of freelancers and entrepreneurs can act not just as a means to increase market diversity and to lower prices for much needed drugs and treatment, but also as a counter-reaction to the bloating and swelling of a centralized corporate elite in business as a whole. As AIG and Goldman Sachs executives lavishly treat themselves with bonuses and golden parachutes funded by taxpayer dollars, at the expense of the poor and the downtrodden at home and abroad, I believe its time for a long overdue change in practice.

In sum, I hope that this article can serve as a rallying cry for the Generation Y entrepreneurs whose moral compass has yet to be blown out by the crushing wave of greed and cronyism taking hold of our sciences, our economy, and the governance of almost every aspect of our lives as well as our body in its own meager way. The fight must continue if you agree to the obvious and ever important statement declared by the ACLU as well as many others: OUR GENES BELONG TO US, NOT CORPORATIONS.

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Ken Cates has studied international relations at the University of Toronto, while currently pursuing a career in writing as well as a certificate in freelance writing. Inspired by writers such as Christopher Hitchens and Chris Hedges, Ken blogs about religion, politics, ethics, societies, and on the little bits of irony surrounding our daily lives.