Gene cartels
Subtitle: biotech patents in the age of free trade
By: Luigi Palombi.
Publisher: Edward Elgar
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Cheltenham, UK; Northampton, MA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 394
ISBN-13: 9781847208361
Subjects: Biotechnology -- Patents; Protectionism
Genres: Patents
Description: Starting with the 13th century, this book explores how patents have been used as an economic protectionist tool, developing and evolving to the point where thousands of patents have been ultimately granted not over inventions, but over isolated or purified biological materials. DNA, invented by no man and once thought to be 'free to all men and reserved exclusively to none', has become cartelised in the hands of multinational corporations. The author questions whether the continuing grant of patents can be justified when they are now used to suppress, rather than promote, research and development in the life sciences.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (c. 341-376) and index.