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May 07, 2003

INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"CDC Seeks Patent on SARS to Keep Discovery Public"

Wall Street Journal (www.wsj.com) (05/07/03); Hamilton, David P.; Regaldo, Antonio

In a bid to secure control over future development of vaccines for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that it is seeking a patent on the virus that causes SARS.  CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding said the patent application would eliminate any chance of the U.S. government being "locked out" of future work on the virus if it was patented by others.  "From our standpoint it is a protective measure to make sure access to the virus remains available to anyone," she explained.  Other bids to secure SARS patents have been made by a Canadian health agency and scientists from Hong Kong.  If approved, the CDC's patent application would include the virus and its genes and would endow the CDC with broad control over the creation of any vaccines and diagnostic tests.

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