Whose Work Is It Anyway?
OXFORD UNIVERSITY HAS been embroiled in a dispute with the University of Nairobi this week over the intellectual property rights concerning research into the AIDS vaccine. Although the research was supposed to be a joint venture between the two institutions, scientists from Nairobi, as well as the Kenyan media, protested when Oxford filed a patent application for the vaccine last December that apparently played down the Kenyan contribution.
Although the matter has now been resolved after the University's Medical Research Council backed down over the issue, tensions ran high for several days. Professor Andrew McMichael of the Oxford team acknowledged that they had made a mistake, but insisted that there were sound reasons why the application had been made. He said: "We designed the vaccine for clinical trials. The patent application was filed in order to protect the vaccine. We wanted to patent it so that it was not taken off our hands and used for commercial purposes."
Professor McMichael cited the example of research into penicillin that was carried out in the 1940s. The team working on the drug wanted to make their results available for the good of mankind and so did not patent the product, but ultimately they had their thunder stolen by an American company who did patent the drug. He said: "It's not really about financial gains - we just wanted to protect the vaccine. There was a misunderstanding about what we were patenting, but the issue has been resolved. It was blown out of all proportion."
The outcome of the meeting to decide the fate of the patent is seen as important not only for the UK-Kenyan trials but in the precedent that it sets for such joint partnerships around the world. The International Aids Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), also signatory to the agreement, has pioneered intellectual property agreements to ensure that developing countries gain immediate benefits from any breakthroughs.
The vaccine is based on findings that some Kenyan prostitutes in Nairobi appeared to have killer T-cells which protected them contracting Aids. The project has benefited from extensive clinical studies by Professor Job Bwayo's team in Nairobi. The trial is the first to address specifically an African strain of HIV, thus targetting the continent worst hit by the Aids pandemic. In Kenya alone, 500 people are infected with HIV every day.
Although scientists say it will still be at least five years before a vaccine is developed, human trials have already begun in the UK, and will move to Kenya later in the year. Oxford's Liberal Democrat MP, Dr Evan Harris is one of the volunteers in the UK trials and he stressed how important it is that such issues should not affect the development of the virus. "First world treatments for HIV are sadly not affordable in the developing world. It is appropriate that British scientists and British politicians work together to provide a vaccine-based approach to combat the HIV devastation that we see in Africa today."
On his participation in the trials he said: "It is not a case of being brave. My volunteering for the safety trial will hopefully encourage people in Oxford to participate."
The project is still looking for healthy, normal volunteers to take part. For anyone interested, more information is available on the project's website at www.oxavi.org.
26th Oct 2000