European Court rules against embryonic stem cell patents
Posted by Emma Kemp, on 18 October 2011
The European Court of Justice has today announced a landmark decision banning patenting of inventions based on embryonic stem cells. Several senior stem cell biologists have expressed their concern that the verdict, which is legally binding for all EU states, will drive development of stem cell therapies outside Europe.
You can read more about the case on eurostemcell.org here: http://www.eurostemcell.org/story/european-court-bans-stem-cell-patents. We’d love to hear your views – why not post a comment on our site?
And while you’re visiting eurostemcell.org, have a look around! We’ve been busy over recent months and we’ve got loads of new content: Interviews with scientists, fact sheets and new educational tools in our stem cell toolkit, to name but a few.
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Oh no! That’s bad news…
I agree with Austin Smith’s comment in the article:
“Professor Austin Smith of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research at the University of Cambridge, agrees: “This unfortunate decision by the Court leaves scientists in a ridiculous position. We are funded to do research for the public good, yet prevented from taking our discoveries to the market place where they could be developed into new medicines. One consequence is that the benefits of our research will be reaped in America and Asia” “