Gene patents are in fact exactly what they sound like, patents on genes. Ludlam tends to speak in absolutes, as one might expect the premier spinmeister for a multibillion-dollar industry to do. And if he isn't absolutely correct in asserting that gene patents are a chimeric straw man conjured by gene patenting's critics, neither is he absolutely wrong. United States patent law currently considers DNA a chemical, and chemicals are patentable. Because of his bluster, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that Ludlam happens to be right that the United States patent system is absolutely the best way of advancing the genetic revolution.
Patents encourage companies to bring products to market with due haste.
First you have a race to invent, then you have a race to make something that will help people, because if it doesn't help people you're never going to get something you can sell. And this is what benefits patients. Patients want these companies racing. True enough, it is this race, more than anything else, that is responsible for the current blistering pace of discovery in the field. At least some of these will receive FDA approval.