ABPI Calls For Biotech Patent Protection

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry has called for "effective and internationally harmonized patent protection for biotechnological inventions," in its publication, Pharmaceutical Industry Issues.

Biotechnology makes use of biological processes to develop useful end products. However, it is only relatively recently that scientific techniques in this area have advanced sufficiently to have furthered our knowledge of the individual cellular and genetic components of the human body. Scientists have been able to use this knowledge, for example, to isolate genes and to use cells ex vivo to manufacture large quantities of proteins. According to the ABPI, the biotechnology industry is "set to produce new therapies for many unconquered diseases." It has already produced new medicines for cancer and diabetes.

The core of the European biotechnology business is in the UK, with a number of start-up companies focusing their activities there. In fact, the number of new companies in the UK is more than the sum of those in France and Germany put together, the report says. A good deal of the research is done in UK universities as well as in pharmaceutical companies.