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PRESS RELEASE
3 December 1996
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*** US GOVERNMENT DUMPS THE HAGAHAI PATENT ***
*** Official Notice to Coincide with Human Rights Day ***
After months of indecision and confusing signals, the US National
Institutes of Health (NIH) has finally put an end to its internationally-
denounced patent on the human cell line of a Hagahai indigenous person
from Papua New Guinea. "I hope this is the end of what is arguably the
most offensive patent ever issued." says Alejandro Argumedo of the
Canada-based Indigenous Peoples' Biodiversity Network (IPBN).
While not yet officially announced, NIH filed paperwork to "disclaim" the
patent at the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) on October 24, 1996.
The NIH disclaimer forfeits all of the US Government's "past and future
rights in each and every claim of United States Patent No. 5,397,696...
thereby relinquishing all control over said patent."
"Three up, three down." says RAFI's Executive Director Pat Mooney,
referring to the trio of US Government patents and patent applications on
indigenous peoples' cell lines that RAFI has opposed. "With Panamanian
indigenous people from the Guaymi General Congress, we successfully
pressured the US to withdraw its first patent application for an
indigenous persons' cells." says Mooney. "Later, in collaboration with the
Solomon Islands Government, RAFI surpressed another US government patent
application for the cells of a citizen of that country."
"Once a patent is granted, it's harder to get rid of." says RAFI's Edward
Hammond. "This made the job more difficult in the Hagahai case. Despite
initial statements by the US Government that it had the informed consent
of the Hagahai and approval of the Papua New Guinea Government for the
patent, under a RAFI Freedom of Information Act petition NIH produced
nothing to substantiate these claims." But NIH still stubbornly clung to
the patent until charges of bio-colonialism from indigenous people, NGOs,
and foreign governments across the globe forced it to relent.
Even in disclaiming the patent, NIH has left unaddressed many of the
numerous inconsistencies and missteps that have dogged the US government
since the beginning of the patent controversy in 1994. A backgrounder on
the patent recently prepared by NIH "raises many more questions than the
few it credibly answers" says Neth Dano of the South East Asia Regional
Institute for Community Education (SEARICE) in the Philippines.
"We've been consistent, and right, all along while the US government has
equivocated and contradicted itself." says Dano. "If, as the US State
Department said, they patented the Hagahai 'for their benefit', why did
the US not even bother to contact the Hagahai when it gave up the patent?
Why does NIH blame a reseacher in Papua New Guinea for the US Government's
own patent? The Papua New Guinea Institute for Medical Research has said
that it followed NIH's lead."
According to NIH, government notice of the patent disclaimer is slated to
appear in the Patent and Tradmark Office's Official Gazette on December
10, which is also International Human Rights Day. While the PTO's timing
of the announcement appears to be coincidence, indigenous people and NGOs
find it poignant and ironic.
"There has been no greater affront to fundamental human rights by Western
intellectual property systems than the Hagahai patent," says Argumedo
"The disclaimer is cause for celebration for indigenous people. At the
same time it gives us all a chance to reflect on the immorality of
industrialized countries allowing the commodification of human cells,
genes, and other tissues."
Although the US Government's strikeout on indigenous peoples' cell line
patents is encouraging, the scope and number of patents on human tissues
is dramatically expanding. Indigenous people, RAFI, and other NGOs remain
vigilant and oppose other current and future moves to patent human
tissues.
CONTACTS:
Ontario, Canada: Pat Mooney or Jean Christie, RAFI
Tel: (613) 567-6880
Fax: (613) 567-6884
E-mail: rafican@web.net
Alejandro Argumedo, IPBN
Tel: (613) 237-5361
Fax: (613) 237-1547
E-mail: ipbn@web.net
North Carolina, USA: Edward Hammond or Hope Shand, RAFI
Tel: (919) 542-1396
Fax: (919) 542-0069
E-mail: hammond@rafiusa.org
hope@rafiusa.org
Manila, Philippines Neth Dano or Rene Salazar, SEARICE
Tel: 63-2-921-7453
Fax: 63-2-921-7453
E-mail: searice@gaia.psdn.org
On the internet:
http://www.charm.net/~rafi/rafihome.html
ABOUT RAFI: RAFI is an international non-governmental organization
headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario (Canada) with affiliate offices in
Pittsboro, North Carolina (USA). RAFI is dedicated to the conservation and
sustainable improvement of agricultural biodiversity, and to the socially
responsible development of technologies useful to rural societies. RAFI is
concerned about the loss of genetic diversity - especially in agriculture
- and about the impact of intellectual property rights on agriculture and
world food security.