Ontario took a step toward establishing a framework for genetics and gene patenting during a recent meeting on the role of genetics in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of disease.
“We need to ensure that the transformations in genetics … are guided by a national framework rooted in our social and ethical values that can benefit all Canadians [in order] to ensure the sustainability of a publicly funded health care system,” said Tony Clement, Ontario's minister of health and long-term care.
The meeting of scientists, clinicians, consumers and others was chaired by Dr. David Naylor, dean of medicine at the University of Toronto. It touched upon a wide range of issues, including discrimination and access to information, gene patenting and financial implications for the publicly funded health system.
Particularly contentious was the issue of gene patents. Richard Gold of McGill University's Faculty of Law asserted that the role of patents in promoting innovation is overstated and that governments should be prepared to exercise their rights to grant compulsory licences to protect public health and, in particular, to promote access to medicines for all. These views were hotly contested by business and industry representatives, who argued that the protection of intellectual property rights is central to the promotion of innovation.
In April 2000, Ontario established an advisory committee to recommend a framework for the introduction of new predictive genetic technologies into the health care system. Its report was submitted last November – 5 months ahead of schedule – and is currently on the minister's desk.
Concern over new genetic technologies grew last May when the Ontario government was warned by Myriad Genetic Laboratories that any predictive testing for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes outside its laboratories violated the company's patents on the 2 genes (see CMAJ 2002;166[4]:494).