Patents, Commercialization and the Canadian Stem Cell Research Community

Abstract

Aims: There has been a great deal of discussion in relevant literature on the adverse impact of commercialization agendas and the patenting regime on research in emerging fields. We sought to assess the perceived impact of these factors on the stem cell research community in Canada. Materials & methods: We surveyed 283 researchers from Canada’s Stem Cell Network using a survey instrument informed by relevant literature and systematic consultations with Canadian and international regulators, stem cell researchers and research ethics experts designed to identify pressing ethical, legal and social issues relevant to stem cell research. A total of 108 researchers responded to the survey. Results & conclusions: Results indicate that although many researchers believe that patents may have adverse effects on research, very few have encountered any such effects in practice. The researchers admitted to withholding data to protect patenting opportunities, while also maintaining that patents did not contribute to publication delays. The pressure to commercialize their research was largely held to be reasonable by researchers.

A Primer on Ethics Education for Stem Cell and Biomedical Scientists

“…Stem cell researchers should learn what a translational and commercialization ethos in science means in terms of changes in funding policies [115][116][117], increase in university-driven patents and licenses [118,119], and the potential pressure to translate and commercialize results [120,121]. The commercialization ethos has called into question a range of ethical and integrity issues including minimizing data sharing and increase in competition and secrecy [121][122][123][124], potential bias of research and ghost authorship [125,126], and the potential to adversely impact public participation in research [127]. Topics surrounding hype, commercialization, stem cell tourism, and effective communication are intimately intertwined and represent some of the current tangible ethics issues that would be of direct interest and practical significance to stem cell scientists.…”

The Stem Cell Research Environment: A Patchwork of Patchworks

“…However, more nuanced research is required to illuminate the prevalent factors. Another key issue is what impact intellectual property protections have on innovation and collaboration [34]. At the present time, it is challenging for researchers to assess whether patents encourage or discourage innovation globally [35,36].…”

Commercialization, patenting and genomics: researcher perspectives

“…A series of structured items analogous to a questionnaire were administered in order to provide a basic understanding of the demographic landscape of our sample (Additional data file 1). These items had been developed in tandem with a more traditional survey instrument on the topic of commercialization administered separately to the Stem Cell Network [30], which, as shown below, provides new comparative insights when paired with this study. Interspersed with these structured items were more open-ended, qualitative items, which allowed the researchers interviewed to speak at length about their outlooks on the interview topics.…”

“…The existence of Genome Canada, as a major funder of large-scale genomic research, provided a unique opportunity to locate and engage this relatively small group. Moreover, because Genome Canada has a strong knowledge translation mandate [30], many of these researchers had considered these issues before they were interviewed, and had well-developed, unorthodox perspectives that emerged in their responses.…”

“…Building on the relevant survey work that has been done in other jurisdictions [28,29] and in other related areas of research [30], we conducted a series of in-depth structured interviews with leading Canadian genomics scientists on the topic of commercialization and gene patenting with the hope that their perspectives would provide fresh insights to help advance a debate that has sometimes fallen into stock arguments.…”