The Guardian / Jane Martinson in New York / Tuesday March 7, 2000
Secret talks between the private and public bodies racing to decipher the human genetic code collapsed yesterday when the US company involved insisted on delaying the release of important information for commercial reasons.
Celera, the US genetics company, and the Human Genome Project, a publicly funded multinational research group, started talking late last year about pooling research efforts in an attempt to speed up the process.
But the talks foundered on the company's insistence that publication of any information - expected to transform certain areas of medical research - was delayed for several years in order to prevent commercial rivals from using it.
Cracking the DNA code which maps human life is the holy grail of the scientific world. It is expected to introduce a new generation of drugs and treatments for a range of inherited illnesses.
The importance of the research prompted the establishment of the Human Genome Project in 1990. But in recent years companies such as Celera have moved closer to the goal of creating a complete map. Public campaigners fear that their control of the code, legally secured with patents, could impede breakthroughs by other researchers.
The extent of the differences between the two sides emerged in a letter to Celera marked "confidential", which was leaked over the weekend. In this letter, written at the end of February, leaders of the Human Genome Project accused the company of misusing its stranglehold over the industry.
"While establishing a monopoly on commercial uses of the human genome sequence may be in Celera's business interest, it is not in the best interests of science or the general public," it said.
The letter explained the reason for the talks by adding: "Humankind will be better served if we can find a viable way to join forces to produce a better product in a more timely fashion."
The Human Genome Project had been expected to decipher the code by 2003, but Celera, based in Maryland, expects to do so by June. The company could barely conceal its annoyance over the leaking of the letter the day before it was expected to give an official response.
Heather Kowalski, Celera's spokeswoman, said: "[This issue] is far too important to continue to be debated in the marketplace." Future talks between the two sides appear unlikely following the breakdown of the talks.
In two reports on the issue, Craig Venter, Celera's president and chief scientific officer, called the leaking of the letter "a low-life thing to do", while Tony White, chairman of PE Corp, Celera's parent company, described it as "slimy".
The letter, apparently leaked by the Wellcome Trust of Britain, reveals that the main stumbling block to any agreement was Celera's position on when the information would be released. The Human Genome Project has previously espoused the immediate release of information, but it had agreed for a delay of between six months and a year in its negotiations with Celera in order to safeguard commercial sensitivities.
But Celera had asked for five years of exclusive rights, arguing that it did not want the millions of dollars it had spent on research to benefit rivals. The company also wanted to publish the information on its website.
The US department of energy, which along with the Wellcome Trust was one of the main backers of the $3bn Human Genome Project, was unavailable for comment yesterday.
Celera has also created a database for the Drosophila, or fruitfly. It has already applied for more than 6,000 patents based on its genetic research.
(posted without permission)
