Cocoa Genome: breaking intellectual property barriers
Pharma-Planta
Vasheharan Kanesarajah, Thomson Reuters
July 2008
Cocoa has been the subject of little agricultural research compared to other major crops such as corn, wheat and rice, yet it is responsible for a multi-billion industry worldwide. Mars has announced a collaboration to sequence and analyze the entire genetic structure of the cocoa tree, in a project that exemplifies the potential values of removing IP barriers.
Environmental assaults such as climate change and disease are affecting agriculture worldwide. Governments and development agencies have been accused of losing focus on the importance of helping poor countries improve their agriculture, as the intellectual property (IP) of technologies that could help farmers address these assaults is frequently protected.
The cocoa tree, responsible for a USD13 billion chocolate industry in the US alone, is one that could benefit from improved knowledge. Farmers in Africa and elsewhere could benefit from information to fend off environmental assaults currently inflicting USD700 million to USD800 million in damages to cocoa crops each year.
Increases in chocolate consumption have spurred an increase in chocolate-related innovation, evident from increasing numbers of patents being granted. Many major chocolate companies such as Mars, Nestlé and Hershey’s hold cocoa-related patents. Mars Inc. holds some of the most valuable chocolate-related technologies, with more than 30 patents related to cocoa.
Mars announced in June 2008 that it will be working with the US Department of Agriculture and information technology experts at IBM to sequence and analyze the entire genetic structure of the cocoa tree. The aim of the project is to eliminate the guesswork in traditional breeding, ultimately yielding higher quantities and quality of cocoa, and increasing income for farmers. The five year project will involve the sequencing and analysis of around 40,000 genes comprising the cocoa genome. The gene sequences will not be patented, and Mars plans to make the research results free and accessible through the Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture (PIPRA), a consortium that supports agricultural innovation.
Removing IP barriers
Patents are granted in return for sufficient disclosure of the invention. On grant, the details contained in a patent become public information, so competitors can learn of the scope of the patent and potentially go on to produce competing technologies, or apply for a license from the holder.
PIPRA is a not-for-profit initiative with a primary mission to improve access to new technologies in agriculture for developing countries, and smaller markets farming specialty crops. This is enabled through support for activities that:
- reduce IP barriers
- develop alternatives to patented inventions
- increase freedom-to-operate by addressing the fragmentation of IP rights across multiple ownerships
- facilitate technology transfer
- leverage public-sector IP for the benefit of developing countries
- support best practices in IP management in the public sector.
PIPRA has long been a supporter of open access to agricultural technology for improved crops essential to the developing world. In addition it maintains a freely accessible database of IP and agricultural innovations generated by members of its consortium, together with their licensing status, in order to enable freedom to operate. PIPRA has also collated information on non-protected technologies such as plant promoters. It works collaboratively with both academic technology transfer offices and industry to help them balance profit imperatives with agricultural technology access for developing economies.
The crowded patent thickets developing within the field of agriculture are getting increasingly complex to navigate. Assembly of technology packages with optimal freedom to operate is difficult. There is a need for improved access to technology to provide solutions for agriculture.
Other non-profit initiatives for agriculture
Cocoa has been the subject of little agricultural research compared to other major crops such as corn, wheat and rice. 'GoldenRice' was a humanitarian effort to enable and commercialize transgenic rice to combat vitamin A deficiency in developing countries. It was estimated that 40 or more patents and several materials protected by Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs) were potentially necessary to enable commercialization. Despite this, the requisite IP was assembled through negotiation within just six months, together with the creation of a public-private partnership involving Syngenta to start the commercialization process.
Plants also have non-agricultural uses for solving problems of the developing world. This includes inexpensive and large scale manufacture of recombinant biopharmaceuticals (such as HIV-neutralizing antibodies) to treat or prevent infectious diseases. However the same enabling tools used for agri-biotech could potentially restrict the commercialization of these plant-made biopharmaceuticals. This is evident from a freedom-to-operate analysis conducted by Pharma-Planta, an EU-funded academic-industry consortium. Pharma-Planta may need to negotiate in-licenses on preferential (or free) terms for specific products for the market for diseases that disproportionately affect poorer populations. Their principal scientists have issued a declaration of humanitarian intent wherein IP generated by its members will be freely available for use to third parties in developing countries in order to meet humanitarian objectives. Additionally, the consortium will not assert IP rights in developing nations in circumstances where it could curtail availability of biopharmaceuticals to combat diseases of the poor.
CAMBIA is a highly creative not-for profit organization based in Australia that generates enabling technologies that are not compromised by patent thickets. Because of IP rights that potentially hinder the use of Agrobacterium-mediated transformation (a method for gene transfer into plants to confer desired traits), an alternative transformation system was developed to 'invent around' patented technology. CAMBIA distributes such in-house technologies through unique licensing arrangements. In this respect there are similarities to the kind of open source movement for software.
CAMBIA has also created a unique and free web-based resource in which detailed patent landscape analyses for crucial enabling technologies in agriculture are prepared to enable scientists to navigate the complex patent thickets and determine optimal solutions with freedom-to-operate.
At the 34th G8 Summit in Tokyo, Japan in July 2008, international leaders met to discuss the current food crisis and how 850 million people worldwide suffering from hunger could be helped. One of the proposed solutions was to increase public investment in research and development on ecological and climate change-resilient farming. CAMBIA, PIPRA and other organizations can aid in facilitating increased access by developing countries to such new agricultural technologies. These important initiatives reduce the knowledge gaps by removing IP barriers that have significantly hindered access to agricultural innovation.
Harry Thangaraj and Vasheharan Kanesarajah write in their own capacity and do not represent the views or position of Thomson Reuters.
References
Kendra Marr (2008) Unwrapping the Chocolate Genome, Washingtonpost.com
David Schimmelpfennig (2004) Agricultural Patents: Are they developing Bad habits ? Choices Article
Greenpeace Briefing: G8 and the food crisis — the real solution
Office International du Cacao, Du Chocolat Et de La Confiserie (OICCC)
Chocosuisse Facts and figures: http://www.chocosuisse.ch/page/3_1_factsandfigures-en.html
Harnessing the Power of Plants (http://www.symbioscience.com/botanical.asp)
PIPRA Website. www.pipra.org
C. Neal Stewart, Jr. (2005) Open-source Agriculture. Information Systems for Biotechnology News Report December 2005. http://www.nbiap.vt.edu/news/2005/artspdf/dec0501.pdf
Bennett AB, Streitz WD, Gacel RA. Specific Issues with Material Transfer Agreements. Chapter 7.3 in IP Handbook www.iphandbook.org