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Patent application withdrawn in biopiracy dispute

• Publication Date：03/24/2010
• Source： United Daily News

Taiwan’s National Health Research Institute and research team leader Ko Ying-chin have withdrawn a U.S. patent application following allegations by an international organization of misuse of aboriginal genetic materials.

The Canadian-based international advocacy organization ETC Group had accused the NHRI and Ko of ethics violations for not informing the Atayal aborigines from villages in Hsinchu County of the patent application with findings based on their blood samples.

The NHRI started the research project and sampling procedure in 2003, aiming to determine the genome linkage for the high prevalence of gout among the island’s indigenous peoples.

ETC confirmed March 23 that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has received the proposal to withdraw the application.

“We are glad to learn of the move and hope that this case will help protect the aboriginal people’s rights regarding the use of genetic materials from their aboriginal community,” Neth Dano, an ETC program manager said.

Meanwhile, local human rights groups and aboriginal communities issued a joint statement criticizing the lack of legal protection for human research subjects in the country. “Current research on humans is regulated only by a notice of points for attention, which is not even an administrative order,” the statement said.

These civic groups called on the Department of Health to set out clear regulations in its draft bill of the Human Research Act.

In addition, to better protect the country’s aborigines, they urged the Council of Indigenous Peoples to beef up Taiwan’s Indigenous Peoples Basic Act of 2005 by speeding up the drafting of implementation rules, the absence of which renders the basic act ineffectual. (PCT-THN)