``A race to claim patents on the SARS virus raises questions about the patent system's ability to cope with genomics.

``Barely had the last nucleotide in the genetic code of the SARS coronavirus been read when the race to claim intellectual rights to the sequence began. And among those filing was the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, in what was essentially a pre-emptive strike (se`e page 214). CDC director Julie Gerberding told reporters last week that, in private hands, a patent on the viral sequence might delay the development and refinement of tests and treatments for the contagious pneumonia that has already killed several hundred people."

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