Aggregated News
The recent granting of three patents for genetically engineered chimpanzees to be used for pharmaceutical research has been branded as "perverse" by a coalition of campaign groups, which claims that the organisations involved have "lost any respect for animals".
The alliance said it was preparing legal opposition to protest the decisions made earlier this year by the Munich-based European Patent Office, arguing that they gave commercial incentives to run more experiments on animals. As many as 1,200 patents on animals have been approved by the EPO since 1992, including several referring to great apes.
"Patents granted on great apes highlight a perverse development in patent law," said Ruth Tippe from No Patents on Life, one of the members of the coalition. "The EPO needs to be more active in protecting mammals, especially primates, and stop granting patents on animals. Within the last few years, we have witnessed a strong increase in the number of animals being used in experiments in biotechnology."
Of the three patents this year, one was granted to the American firm Altor Bioscience for transgenic animals with...
The alliance said it was preparing legal opposition to protest the decisions made earlier this year by the Munich-based European Patent Office, arguing that they gave commercial incentives to run more experiments on animals. As many as 1,200 patents on animals have been approved by the EPO since 1992, including several referring to great apes.
"Patents granted on great apes highlight a perverse development in patent law," said Ruth Tippe from No Patents on Life, one of the members of the coalition. "The EPO needs to be more active in protecting mammals, especially primates, and stop granting patents on animals. Within the last few years, we have witnessed a strong increase in the number of animals being used in experiments in biotechnology."
Of the three patents this year, one was granted to the American firm Altor Bioscience for transgenic animals with...