Clinton and Blair make human genome plea

US president Bill Clinton and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair have issued a joint statement urging all human genome researchers to place their results in the public domain. 'Raw fundamental data on the human genome, including the human DNA sequence and its variations, should be made freely available to scientists everywhere' said the leaders last week.

The unprecedented announcement followed a row between the publicly-funded Human Genome Project scientists and US company Celera Genomics, the two sides racing to finish the human DNA sequence. Talks aimed at establishing a collaboration between the rivals broke down earlier this month, but US president advisor Neal Lane was insistent the timing of the statement had nothing to do with the recent disagreement.

Both public and private human genome researchers appeared to welcome the announcement. Publicly-funded researchers expressed their happiness that their position - fast and full publication of raw data - had been fully endorsed by the two leaders. Executives at Celera and other companies said they have no argument with the statement. Craig Venter, head of Celera, said they already intended to make their raw data public.

Clinton and Blair also stressed the importance of 'intellectual property protection for gene-based inventions'. Both US and UK patent law says that genes themselves are not patentable, but any test or treatment involving a specific gene can be patented. However Celera, along with many other biotech companies, have apparently applied for patents on pieces of DNA without so far producing any inventions to go with them. Sir Robert May, the government's chief scientific officer, says it would be a 'screaming disaster' if any such applications were granted.

News of the Blair-Clinton statement sent biotech shares plunging last Tuesday, but they recovered later in the week.