[Next-Generation Sequencing Book]
  • [Photo] J.W. Bizzaro • November 26, 2000
    ``Like a latter-day Johnny Appleseed, Dr. Ingo Potrykus, the German inventor of golden rice [a strain that is genetically modified to produce beta carotene], would like to send his seeds to poor people around the world at no charge. `I would like to send a year ago,' he said, holding out a handful of seeds stored in a locked refrigerator at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. `There are 3,500 children dying every day [from vitamin A deficiencies]. I think we should not delay one day.' But golden rice has remained under lock and key since it was created more than a year ago [1.3 million children dead]. Meanwhile, Dr. Potrykus has struggled to free it from a complicated web of more than 70 patents and legal agreements covering items as diverse as DNA sequences and the techniques he and his colleagues used to insert new genes in the rice.''

    Full story (free registration required):
    http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/21/science/21RICE.html

    And who said that scientific patents never hurt anyone? Reference by Slashdot.org.

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