biotechnological patenting
...e accessed by any and all who wish to see it on bioinformatics databases. This will establish a liaison between all researchers who are in the same field of study while informing the public of all cutting-edge discoveries. A patent provides a company with twenty years of exclusive rights to their newly discovered information. This gives the company time to develop the raw information into a therapy or a cure that can be sold for a profit. Take for example the Genentech’s discovery of the gene responsible for producing human insulin. Once they discovered the gene that they spent all of that time and money to discover, they were given a twenty-year safety net to produce humulin, which is the product sold in the public to diabetes patients. This process is of producing a sellable product, however, is far more expensive than the pre-patent research, and in order to be able to afford this, the company must let others use their information or gene as well so as to draw royalties from others. This, in turn, prevents an under-use or development of information. Patents also prevent an over use of information or a gene by the company controlling who has the rights to work with their property and who does not. Patents offer a certain incentive to researchers to explore different areas in quest for a monopoly and a hopefully large profit. Researchers would not research a topic without any promise of some form of benefit or profit from said research. The promise of a monopoly drives researchers to study new genes and find their function quickly so as to beat out others racing towards that final goal and to gain the most profit from a desired area of study. The money awarded to the company who discovers the gene’s function first, by way of a patent, can be used then to further the research and development of the information attained into a marketable product. When patents are in place on a certain area of study some different researcher would have to look in other areas to make a new discovery. This helps broaden the scope of research that scientist are doing. If there is currently a patent on the gene that produces human insulin, then researchers would not be able to freely research this gene to produce a product for market. They would have to find an unexplored area of the genome to research. This spread of research will help the overal...