4-Patents: Biopiracy accusations have reverberations on Bermuda

[GENET <coordination@genet-info.org>]

                                  PART I
-------------------------------- GENET-news -------------------------------

TITLE:  Bio Station's Tony Knap lashes out at 'inaccurate' ocean story
SOURCE: The Royal Gazette, Bermudas, by Sarah Titterton
        http://www.theroyalgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040713
        /NEWS/107130017
DATE:   13 Jul 2004

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Bio Station's Tony Knap lashes out at 'inaccurate' ocean story

The Bio Station hit back at accusations of "biological piracy" yesterday,
calling them "inaccurate" and a "disgrace".

Bermuda Biological Station for Research (BBSR) director Tony Knap spoke
in response to an article in Friday's Royal Gazette. The story, under the
headline "Preventing biological piracy in Bermuda's waters", said
Government was cracking down on BBSR research after two projects using
genetic materials from local waters did not benefit Bermuda at all.

The two projects included a project run by a company called Diversa,
which is marketing a protein collected from Bermuda coral as a
biotechnology tool, as well as that of world-famous Human Genome
scientist Craig Venter.

Dr. Venter collected organisms from the Sargasso Sea - Bermuda's local
waters - in his search for an organism which could convert carbon dioxide
into a clean fuel source.

The article stated that both projects were carried out in affiliation
with the BBSR under a decades-old permit used to carry out BBSR research.

However, it said, Government will now be revoking the permit and begin
negotiating deals with research teams directly to ensure Bermuda gets a
legitimate share of any financial gains earned from its genetic resources.

But Dr. Knap hit back yesterday, saying the article was based on "a re-
hash of an inaccurate story which appeared in Nature magazine four weeks ago".

With Nature already agreeing to publish a letter from Dr. Knap, director
of Conservation Services Jack Ward, and Diversa CEO Jay Short rebutting
that story, Dr. Knap added he felt it was a "disgrace" that this
newspaper did not get the entire story before going to press.

In the letter to Nature, the three wrote: "The Ministry of the
Environment is not displeased with Diversa Corporation's research
activities in Bermuda, greatly values the ongoing collaborations with the
BBSR, and appreciates its responsibility in ensuring a proactive and
consultative approach to issues of environmental access."

Diversa, the BBSR and Government will continue exploring ways to expand
the benefits of bio-prospecting for Bermuda, it added.

Noting that it is impossible to patent a genetic sequence, Dr. Knap said
therefore Bermuda had lost no revenue from Dr. Venter's project. He also
noted that Dr. Venter's findings were published in open literature "for
the global good".

He said the issue of ownership of such findings was complicated, pointing
out that water travelling past Bermuda travels past many other countries also.

"We are working with Bermuda Government representatives to determine the
best practice," he said. "Many other countries are dealing with similar
issues. The United States, for example, does not claim any value or
collect revenue from its marine genetic resources.

"We continue to talk to the Bermuda Government officials about equitable
benefit sharing, making sure that everyone benefits."

Royal Gazette Editor Bill Zuill said that The Royal Gazette had
unsuccessfully attempted to contact Dr. Knap on Thursday night. But Mr.
Ward was contacted, and said the original story was erroneous and
explained Government's policy.

"While we try to contact all relevant sources when researching stories,
we felt that Mr. Ward's explanation was adequate and that the story was
of sufficient public interest to justify publication without having heard
back from contacted Dr. Knap," Mr. Zuill said.

"Dr. Knap's response (published in full on Page 4) covers much the same
ground as our story and on that basis I feel that we were justified in
going ahead and publishing."


                                  PART II
-------------------------------- GENET-news -------------------------------

TITLE:  Setting the record straight
SOURCE: The Royal Gazette, Bermudas, by Anthony Knap
        http://www.theroyalgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040713
        /OPINION/107130029
DATE:   12 Jul 2004 

------------------- archive: http://www.genet-info.org/ -------------------


Setting the record straight

Dear Sir,
The article that appeared in The Royal Gazette on Friday July 9, 2004
entitled 'Preventing biological piracy in Bermuda waters' was highly
inaccurate and was based on a re-hash of an inaccurate story about
bioprospecting in Bermuda which appeared in 'Nature' magazine four weeks ago.

The Bermuda Biological Station for Research (BBSR) was not given the
opportunity to comment or supply the correct information for The Gazette
article since the reporter left a message for me after working hours on
Thursday evening and I returned the call 8.15 on Friday morning, not
realising the story had already been printed. Neither was any attempt
made to contact me or BBSR's media officer at home. The only conclusion I
can draw is that your reporter did not want the facts to get in the way
of trying to create a sensational story.

There was no urgency in publishing the article in The Gazette on Friday
other than to avoid allowing BBSR the opportunity to set the record
straight. The issues touched upon in The Gazette article are complicated
and hard to comprehend and I think it is a disgrace that Bermuda's daily
newspaper did not even attempt to get the whole story straight prior to
publishing. BBSR and the Government have had an ongoing dialogue on
bioprospecting as the following letter indicates. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sir -
Despite the claim in your news article, "Bermuda gets tough over resource
collecting" ('Nature', 2004), Bermuda's Ministry of the Environment has
not shut down any research projects relating to biodiversity access, even
on a temporary basis. New laws and regulations are under development to
enhance bioprospecting, not to prevent or hinder such research
activities. Contrary to your news article, the Ministry of the
Environment is not displeased with Diversa Corporation's research
activities in Bermuda, greatly values the ongoing collaborations with the
Bermuda Biological Station for Research (BBSR), and appreciates its
responsibility in ensuring a proactive and consultative approach to
issues of environmental access. Furthermore, Diversa, BBSR and the
Ministry look forward to exploring ways to expand the bioprospecting
benefits realised to date by the people and the government of Bermuda.

Jack A. Ward, Director of Conservation Services, Ministry of the Environment
Anthony Knap, Director, Bermuda Biological Station for Research, Inc.
Jay M. Short, Chief Executive Officer, Diversa Corporation
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The article in The Gazette made the same mistake as the article in
'Nature'; you mixed bioprospecting with scientific discovery. BBSR
operates the longest record of ocean measurements in the world,
Hydrostation S. Our Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study site (BATS) 80 km
southeast of the island is the most studied site in the world's oceans.
We know more about this part of the ocean than any area in the world
other than our sister site in Hawaii. We are trying to understand how the
ocean works regarding the regulation of greenhouse gases such as carbon
dioxide and have to study all aspects of the ocean. From time to time new
tools emerge for us to do our job better. Twelve years ago, Dr. Steven
Giovannoni (Oregon State University) used new DNA methods to isolate a
bacteria called SAR 11 (SAR for Sargasso Sea). This organism was thought
to be one of the most abundant bacteria on the planet about: 600,000
cells per millilitre of seawater. In 2002, we teamed up with Dr. Craig
Venter, who had sequenced the human genome, and he had an interest in
applying whole genome shotgun sequencing to our time-series station
samples to help determine the species diversity at BATS. We took three
50-gallon samples in February 2003 and one in May 2003. The seawater was
filtered and sequenced. The results were astounding and were published in
'Science' magazine two months ago. Already this paper has been heralded
as an incredible dataset of diversity in the ocean. There were
approximately 250,000 known genes in the environment prior to this study.
We found over 1.2 million more! We found the parts list for 1,800 to
47,000 new species. We also found 790 new light-harvesting proteins. Only
200 had been known to date, globally. We published these data in the open
literature so they are available for all - the global good. One cannot
patent a sequence so no revenue was lost from Bermuda as it was not there
in the first place. Also seawater moves quite fast off Bermuda. This
water had collected bacteria from many Exclusive Economic Zones of many
countries in the world and had probably picked up bacteria from many
places it had been. This water may have in Bermuda's Exclusive Economic
Zone for five days and out in the next five days. Ownership of such
material is a difficult and complicated issue and we are working with the
Bermuda Government representatives to determine the best practice. Many
other countries are dealing with similar issues. The United States, for
example, does not claim any value or collect revenue from its marine
genetic resources. Science, though, has to continue and new tools have to
be employed to understand the oceanic system. As each one of the water
samples we studied was so different - even 20 km apart - we believe that
the diversity of the open ocean is huge and there are millions more genes
that have not been discovered. We have only scratched the surface and
without these studies we would never know this. Regarding the issue of
benefit sharing, we received a milestone payment of USD 1,645 for a
product derived from a discovery in Bermuda. BBSR, not Diversa as
indicated in your article, set up a fund to benefit Bermuda's students in
order to pay for DNA sequencing chemicals. We continue to talk to the
Bermuda Government officials about equitable benefit sharing, making sure
that everyone benefits as per the letter to be published in Nature.

TONY KNAP President, Director and Senior Scientist, Bermuda Biological
Station for Research, Inc.




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