The Challenge to Patent Law of Pure Chemical Protein Synthesis

Abstract:     
This article argues that the emergence of pure chemical protein synthesis as a commercially viable method of drug design and production will create serious problems in the patent system and explains why. Patents on recombinant proteins will block research on and the commercialization of these same proteins produced through chemical synthesis, with accompanying negative effects for medical research. This looming problem illustrates why patents on naturally occurring proteins should not be granted. In the future, chemists must now focus on modifying such natural proteins to avoid the patents.

Keywords: Patent law, biotechnology

Accepted Paper Series