The Novo Nordisk requirements for providing information about the country of origin in relation to inventions is now being implemented. This will apply to all biological materials collected after the Convention on Biological Diversity came into force, and it should be in place for all patent applications to be filed in 1999. These applications will be published from June 2000 onwards.

An example of the wording in one of our patent applications filed in 1995: " ... Nigrospora sp, Deposit of strain, Acc No: CBS 272.96 isolated from leaf of Artocarpus altilis, Moraceae, Urticales grown in Christiana, Jamaica."

Wording corresponding to this will be included in our 1999 applications.

This openness reflects a new voluntary practice that gives donor countries the opportunity to monitor whether a product has been isolated from genetic material originating from their country.

This particular requirement has been adopted to generate increased trust when dealing with providing countries. It will also facilitate a more open dialogue with stakeholders on the access and benefit sharing issues.


Patents - whose advantage?
The Convention states that benefits should be shared "fairly and equitably". We see the right to patent inventions comprising genetic material as a prerequisite for being able to generate sufficient income from a new invention to share with the donor countries. If we cannot protect our inventions against piracy, they can be copied easily and the market may become saturated with identical competing products. As a result, there will be little or no monetary benefits for Novo Nordisk to share. Furthermore, the financial basis for conducting research into new products will disappear. That is why the laws on patenting serve the interests of both Novo Nordisk and the donor country.

Life patenting - a misleading term
Objections to patenting of genetic material are often based on a lack of understanding about patents. Patents do not confer ownership of life; the patentee can only prohibit the economic exploitation of an invention by someone else. Research can still be performed freely and patents on natural substances neither provide control over the products in their natural environment nor interfere with any existing uses of the material from which the invention is derived.

Our view is that patents on inventions involving living matter or gene sequences are allowable and should remain so. In this way, we can protect our R&D investments in this technology against piracy by others. In biotechnology, piracy is very easy, while our investments in research and development are very high - around 19% of our turnover.

New 1999 target: All relevant patent applications and publications submitted in 1999 and onwards will state the country of origin of genetic material covered by the Convention on Biological Diversity.

What is a patent?