Europe’s threat to stem cell research

THE European courts are threatening to destroy vital stem cell research and with it the hope of a cure for a range of diseases.

Stem cells are the body s master cells that can be turned into any tissue bone or organ in the body Stem cells are the body’s master cells that can be turned into any tissue bone or organ in the body

At risk is the protection of breakthrough discoveries using patents, an industry where Britain is a leader.

Experts, including the man who created the first animal clone, Dolly the Sheep, Professor Ian Wilmut said the “shocking” proposal would wreck British stem cell science.

A test case is before the European Court of Justice that could make it unlawful to patent any medical development that has been made based on embryonic stem cell research.

Professor Austin Smith, director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research in Cambridge said the move was “astonishing and shocking”.

He added: “If the European Court of Justice was to follow this opinion then the reality is that all patents in Europe that involve human embryonic stem cells will be eliminated.

“Other patents will apply in the United States, China and Japan, so this will put Europe at a huge disadvantage. It will effectively wipe out the European biotech industry in this area.”

Stem cells are the body’s master cells that can be turned into any tissue, bone or organ in the human body. It is hoped that they could one day allow doctors to grow “spare parts”.

Scientists want to patent new treatments based on stem cells. This means private firms funding research will have the sole right to sell the medicines created. But EU legal chiefs say this is “unethical”.

Professor Pete Coffey, a stem cell researcher, said: “There’s an ethical need to treat disease which appears to have been lost in this whole debate.”

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