The "Missing Link" and RAFI's error.
In its latest "release", RAFI has retracted a good bit, although it
might be hard to detect.
1. RAFI acknowledges they erred in saying I worked for the NIH - but that
really doesn't matter to their argument. WRONG. What they insinuated in
their earlier "press release" on the Net was that I might be some sort of
connecting link between the NIH gene patent cases relating to Papua New
Guinea and the Solomon Islands on the one hand, and the Human Genome
Diversity Project on the other. Well, I'm not and never have been involved
in the NIH patent cases, and I've already made clear what my relationship
to the HGDP was while I was at the NSF. So that link in RAFI's conspiracy
theory never existed - and that entire argument collapses as a result.
Incidentally, any real misunderstandings of mine on the patent cases that
RAFI may have correctly identified should only substantiate my lack of
involvment in the patent cases or NIH. Without going through things again
point by point, I got involved in this mess because, at the request of the
Solomon Islands Ambassador to the US, UN, and Canada (a very busy and
competent man in New York), I called a couple of people at the NIH a year
ago to find out about RAFI's claims that NIH was involved in patenting a
Solomon Islander's genes. I got a satisfactory description of the
situation, wrote the letter, had the NIH contact read and o.k. it as
accurate, and then sent it on to the SI Ambassador. The important point was
that the NIH had "continued" the SI case, with the intention of abandoning
it, and that that was their expectation for the PNG case, as well. Since
that's what I was told, I didn't bother to check up further. As we all
know, the PNG case was, contrary to my letter, approved in March of this
year. I only learned of that while visiting the Institute for Medical
Research this past summer, after having visited the Solomon Islands. I
expressed my reservations to Dr. Alpers about the patent, and received a
reasonable reply (the entire issue of DNA patenting was still debatable, so
in the absence of an international understanding, they were going ahead in
order to make sure no one else claimed the viral variant; and that the
Hagahai were going to be primary beneficiaries anyway). I didn't rush off
and notify the SI Ambassador, or the SI Health Ministry officials I had
spoken with earlier, because theirs was a different case, one that I
understood was going to be dropped by the "inventors." In retrospect, this
has been my major sin of omission. And I have acknowledged as much in
letters to the Ambassador and the Ministry of Health in the last two weeks.
As soon as I saw RAFI's new charges, I called the NIH to establish the
status of the SI case, and was assured that it had been entirely dropped -
"withdrawn" is the offical word (as opposed to its earlier status of
"continued"). I still have no written proof of that, however, and will
notify whoever wants to know when I get it.
2. RAFI lets up on the "conspiracy" button this time around. Well, given
what's in point 1, it's pretty clear why. So now they say I'm just mistaken
on a number of points concerning the patent cases and never read them.
Well, I didn't read them, and it doesn't surprise me that Drs. Jenkins &
Alpers say they didn't either, and they were actually involved in the PNG
case. The clear error is my statement that the patent involved a pooled
sample of Hagahai blood - a term I picked up from a description from an
email from Carol Jenkins This point is of little conseqence in the patent
controversy. Henry Greely's argument that the patent doesn't cover the
genes of a PNG person is consistent with 1) the title, 2) what I understand
the intent of the whole application to be and, anyway, 3) makes sense in its
own right. He has also assured me he has checked it all out with experts in
the area of patent law and biotechnology. That's enough comment here - you
can wade through it yourself.
3. RAFI now says they never meant to damage the Institute of Medical
Research or the reputations of Drs. Jenkins and Alpers, citing the fact that
they didn't mention the IMR or Drs. Jenkins or Alpers by name in their
earlier "press release." I'm sure that will hardly reassure Drs. Jenkins or
Alpers. In her lovely long phone call with Jenkins, Ms. Christie threatened
to take her to the World Court in the Hague (right after the Bosnian Serbs,
no doubt). In PNG, everyone following RAFI's charges know who is being
accused. The IMR is under a great deal of financial stress right now, and
could go under. One newspaper in the country, owned by a Malaysian logging
company that has obtained logging rights to enormous stretches of the PNG
rainforest, has been the primary trumpeter of RAFI's charges against the
IMR. Since the IMR has been involved in attempts to preserve the
rainforest, it makes sense the logging company's newspaper would like to
discredit them. If you're looking for REAL bio-pirates, Ms. Christie, I
think the logging companies are the right folks to attack, not the Institute
for Medical Research, the U.S. National Institutes of Health, or the Human
Genome Diversity Project.
On a more personal level, I know Drs. Alpers and Jenkins feel besieged by
the local reaction to these scurrilous charges by RAFI. And in Australia,
one university has refused to consider Carol for an appointment because she
had become "too controversial." I find that nothing less than scandalous.
FINAL REMARK (and I mean final).
A lot of readers may think this whole thing as just a tempest in a teapot.
Some of my friends have told me to just ignore RAFI, they're just four
marginal folks who will gain the desired publicity from any reaction. RAFI
won't quit until people who know the truth speak up. We all learned that a
long time ago. Ed Hammond has a fine example right in North Carolina. When
I was a kid growing up in Greensboro, there was a fiery radio announcer in
the eastern part of the state who made his reputation smearing the UNC
president, Frank Graham, with all sorts of distortions. At first, no one
responded, the attacks were so outlandish. Now that former radio announcer
is the senior senator from N.C.
Jonathan Friedlaender
[ As identified in an earlier article, Dr. Friedlaender's electronic mail
address is "v5065e@vm.temple.edu" --Gary (gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us) ]