Who Owns Science?

At a launch event for the Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation (iSEI) at Manchester University yesterday, Professors John Sulston and Joseph Stiglitz gave a public lecture entitled ‘Who Owns Science?’.

The Institute, where Sulston will be working alongside John Harris, Professor of Bioethics in the School of Law at Manchester, will focus on ethical questions raised by science and technology in the 21st century, notably issues of intellectual property and the commercialisation of science. The Institute aims to draw up a ‘Manchester Manifesto‘ to establish a consensus on intellectual property in science by November 2008.

In a letter to The Times Sulston and Stiglitz argue that ‘… the system of law and practice that has regulated science and protected the rights of those who make scientific discoveries and turn them into products and therapies in a process known as “innovation” is unfit to serve the needs of the contemporary world.’

Professor Sulston is calling for ‘open medicine‘ and warns that profits are taking precedence over the needs of patients, particularly in the developing world. In the NHS, he warns that the work of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence is under threat from commercial interests.