ACTIP Bulletin 19

February 2000

In this issue:

Patents crucial to win science race

Commission news

ACTIP Secure area a success

Short research news

News items

Short news - mergers and alliances

On the web

Publications

EC Publications

Patents crucial to win science race

New Research Commissioner Busquin is quite clear on what he thinks of science in Europe: The European reseach effort not only looks fragmented and insufficiently coordinated, but Europe's investments in research are also failing to keep pace with our competitors in America and Asia.

Typical of this fragmentation is Europe's current patent regime. It is important for research in Europe for the European patent to be started as soon as possible. The plans are there, and will have his full backing: a new low-cost scheme should be introduced which would provide 20 years of legal protection for inventions through one simple application to an EU patent body. Once granted, these patents would be automatically accepted throughout the region.

These plans are not only backed by the Research Commission, but also feature high on the list of priorities unveiled by Internal Market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein, who is ultimately responsible for this issue.

The new patent plans will be tabled before the Summer recess. Sources predict that the Commission will propose making English the language in which the new EU-wide patents are written (previously translations were needed into all EU languages). However, diplomats say that the language issue could be a major stumbling block to getting agreement on the new system. Other unresolved key issues are:
* which legal body would oversee legal disputes over new Union-wide patents: the European Court or national courts?
* which body would be charged with the day-to-day running of the scheme: the EPO or another body?
* what to day with the national patent offices?

All these nice plans do not mean that Europe will immediatey close the gap, because not all problems are related to the EU's current patent practice: statistics show that US firms apply to the EPO for just as many patents as do their European rivals, so it is not only the sytem that is to blame. Experts point out that cultural differences will also have to be overcome, as Europeans are just not as keen to register their inventions as the Americans. But a streamlined EU-wide patent system will surely help to close the gap.

Source: European Voice, January 27, 2000

Commission News

New research document

The European Commission has produced a document paving the way for a new European research area. This means the creation of a frontier-free area for research where scientific resources are used more to create jobs and increase Europe's competitiveness. Special attention will be given to the networking of centres of excellence, and developing a European approach to large research infrastructures. This will be combined with measures to promote spin-offs from research such as action on patents and easier access to risk capital.

http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/research/area/com2000-6-en.pdf

Busquin: public to better grasp science

In addition, new Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin is calling for increased efforts to boost the average EU citizen's pitifully low level of scientific knowledge. The rationale is that there are more and more problems with scientific developments that have been raised in the press in all EU member states, yet the public understanding of science is often very poor. The aim of Busquin's plan is to boost scientific knowledge to help the citizen to reach informed decisions on food safety issues such as BSE and genetically modified organisms and other concerns such as global warming.
Another need identified by Busquin is a more thorough discussion of the social and ethical impact of scientific development in the EU and beyond.
Busquin wants this plan to work at the EU level beyond the framework programmes.

Source: European Voice 6, Jan 12, 2000

Calling all innovators

This is an early warning that the Innovation Directorate plans a second call for proposals under FP5 in mid-2000. The projects are specidically intended for SME's, and the Directorate is looking for projects which help to identify common non-technical barriers to innovation, and to develop widely applicable strategies and tools for tackling them, as well as supporting the industrial take-up of specific new technologies through research and demonstration activities.

Please keep an eye on:

Enterprise DG, Projects and methodologies
www.cordis.lu/innovation-smes/home.html
Fax: + 352 4301 32 100
Email: innovation@cec.eu.int

FP6 discussions to start

It is expected that preliminary discussions will begin soon within the Commission on the priorities for the 6th FP R&D Programme, which is likely to run from 2002-2006.

ACTIP Secure Area on web a success

ACTIP's website statistics show that the site attracts an average 1,100 visitors per month. A quarter of all visitors are located in the US (statistics: US commercial), followed by users from Belgium, Germany and the UK.

The pages most frequently visited are the home/index page, the members page, the interesting links page and the newsbulletin.

The secure area is proving to fulfill a need, with 25% of visitors accessing this page. The secure area features a number of interesting documents, and can be used by ACTIP members to post messages and documents of interest to other members. The pdf documents available on the secure area are downloaded frequently.

Short research news

Hair follicle as promising gene therapy target

A recent study by Alexeev and colleagues demonstrates that the hair follicle is a visible, safe and non-invasive target for gene therapy.
Millions of people experience the loss of hair pigment, extensive hair loss because of alopecia areata or chemotherapy. Unfortunately there are few treatments for the underlying causes of hair changes during ageing or as a result of such disorders.
Using an RNA-DNA (chimeric) oligonucleotide in albino mice, the authors demonstrated pigmented hair growth. The chimeric oligonucleotide was delivered in liposomes by intradermal injection.

Others were recently successful in cloning genes coding for hairlessness or promoting hair shaft production.
In addition to correcting genes for hair pigmentation and hair growth, hair follicle gene therapy could also be interesting from another point of view: the hair follicle has a high capacity for producing proteins. Already, researchers have succeeded in eliciting antigen-specific immune responses using topical application of both naked and liposome-entrapped plasmid vectors for the hepatitis surface antigen. This topical vaccine gene therapy depended on the presence of normal hair follicles, suggesting that the targeting and manufacture of the gene products occurs in the follicle. One can envisage many applications for such hair follicle 'factories'.

This research opens exciting new possibilities for not only modifying hair features but also for producing bioreactors by gene therapy. Needed now are methods to improve the efficiency of selectivity of delivery, and durability of transgene expression. Despite this, the hair follicle stands as one of the most promising targets for effective, useful, safe and lucrative gene therapy.

Source: Nature Biotechnology Vol 18, Jan 2000, pp 20-21. A copy of the article is available from the ACTIP Secretariat.

Longer in vitro life with telomerase

The proliferative capacity of many somatic cells in vitro is limited because of progressive shortening of telomere length. Ectopic expression of telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT), a ribonucleoprotein complex that adds telomeric DNA to the ends of chromosomes, has been shown to overcome this and extend the proliferative potential of certain somatic cells. Thus, TERT overexpression may enhance culture lifespan of somatic cells for tissue engineering. Capacity to later form functional cells is not impaired (at least, not for adrenocortical cells).

Source: Nature Biotechnology Vol 18, 2000, pp 22-24

Minimal set of genes for life

Scientists at the Institute for Genomic Research in Rockville, MD, are trying to determine the minimal set of genes required for life. Using mutagenesis of Mycobacterium genitalium, an organism with the smallest genome of self replicating organisms, the scientists demonstrated that only 256-350 of the 480 protein-coding genes are essential for growth under laboratory conditions. The scientists are now hoping to develop a cassette-based artificial chromosome to determine the exact requirements for a minimal genome, but this work is still pending ethical review. An accompanying article states that 'the prospect of constructing minimal and new genomes does not violate any fundamental moral precepts or boundaries'.

Source: Science Vol. 286, pp. 2165-2169, 1999

News items

(source: BIA Neswcast)

First cloned monkey

Researchers at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Centre in the US announced the birth of the first cloned primate, a rhesus monkey called Tetra. The technology involved splitting an embryo.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,33640,00.html

Cloning rights to PPL

PPL Therapeutics, with the Roslin Institute and Geron Corporation, have been granted the first two UK patent rights relating to cloning technology. A Notice of Allowance has also been received from the US Patent Office for a patent application filed to protect the nuclear transfer technology in the US.

Short News

Mergers and alliances

Cambridge Antibody Technology announces a multidisciplinary strategic alliance with Searle, Monsanto's pharmaceutical business.

http://www.catplc.co.uk/

Shire Pharmaceuticals Group plc has completed its merger with Roberts Pharmaceutical Corporation.

http://www.shiregroup.com/103_corp_press/press/merger231299.htm

Cambridge Genetics and Cambridge Drug Discovery have announced a merger to form
a new company that provides innnovative drug discovery solutions to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
Further information: Simon Kerr, Cambridge Genetics + 44 1223 496050

Warner-Lambert is discussing a merger with Pfizer in a move that would create the world's largest pharmaceutical group.

http://www.warner-lambert.com/index.asp

http://www.pfizer.com/pfizerinc/about/press/talk.html

The Boards of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham announce that they have unanimously agreed the terms of a proposed merger of equals to form Glaxo SmithKline, the world’s leading research-based pharmaceutical company.

http://www.sb.com/news/merger/merger.html

The Aventis companies

Hoechst Ag and Rhone-Poulenc S.A. merged to form Aventis. The company has several distinct business groups.

Aventis Pasteur manufactures or distributes over 30 vaccines and immunotherapeutic products. Current research focuses on possible vaccines against childhood ear infections, respiratory infections and therapeutic vaccines to treat certain cancers.

The pharmaceutical development activities and products of Hoechst Marion Roussel and of Rhone-Poulenc Rorer will be merged into the newly formed company: Aventis Pharma. This group plans to intensify its research in the areas of oncology, rheumatology, asthma, diabetes, allergies and cardiovascular diseases.

Aventis Behring is the former Centeon, formed in 1996 as a 50/50 joint venture between a Rhone-Poulenc Rorer subsidiary and the plasma derivative division of a Hoechst subsidiary. Its products include coagulation therapies for the treatment of haemophilia, wound-healing agents used during major surgical procedures, treatments that inhibit blood clotting, immunoglobulins for the prevention and treatment of immune disorders, and plasma expanders for the treatment of a variety of conditions such as shock, burns and circulatory disorders.

For more information visit the Aventis web-site at:
http://www.aventis.com

On the web

Xenotransplantation

Xenotransplantation not only raises technical but also medical, moral and safety issues. Much relevant information can be found on two sites of respectively pro and contra's:

www.islet.org
and
www.crt-online.org

EMBnet for Bioinformatics

EMBnet is the European Molecular Biology Network and consists of a group of 37 collaborating nodes in over 28 countries, supporting more than 32,000 users worldwide. It is the only organization worldwide that brings bioinformatics professionals together to serve the expanding fields of genetics and molecular biology. Visit:

http://www.embnet.org

Access to finance

There is a website which explains how SMEs can improve their access to finance:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/dg23/financing/financing.html

In the same vein, try the website of Linking Innovation, Finance and Technology. Try the helpdesk at:

http://www.cordis.lu/lift/html

For entrepreneurs

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There are various sites to help entrepreneurs. For example:

Intellectual Proprty Rights Help Desk:
http://www.cordis.lu/ipr-helpdesk

Networking of Biovalleys in Europe:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/dg12/fp5/eag-qol-entr.html

Biobiz for preparing a busines plan:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/dg12/biotech/biocour1.html

Guide for biotech SMEs:
http://www.cc.cec:8082/comm/dg03/publicat/bio/index0.htm

European prize for young entrepreneurs:
http://www.jee.org/

Journals and publications

Developments in modern biotechnology are published in Current Biology. A free table of contents is available from:

http://www.biomednet.com/library/jcub/email

Medscape's weekly bulletins are available free online to subscribers. Bulletins include information on latest drug research:

http://www.medscape.com

90% human genome

Company Celera Genomics has announced that the company has DNA sequence in the Celera database that covers 90% of the human genome:

http://www.pecorporation.com/press/prccorp011000.html

European Commission websites

A presentation on FP5 (in pdf or as powerpoint file) can be downloaded from:

europa.eu.int/comm/dg12/fp5/presentation.html

Find partners on CORDIS. Use the
Expression of interest (EoI) Service for FP5 projects

www.cordis.lu/ist/eoi.htm

EU research results
apollo.cordis.lu/cordis/EN_RESU1_search.html
or:
europa.eu/int/comm/dg12/success/en/success_en.html

Quality of Life help desk

Quality-of-life@cec.eu.int

Innovation help desk

Innovation@cec.eu.int

Submitting a proposal

If you plan to submit a proposal for one of the key action or generic activities, then the following websites are very useful:

Protool (to prepare a e-proposal):
www.cordis.lu/fp5/protool

New workprogrammes FP5
www.cordis.lu/fp5/home.html

Latest calls for proposals FP5
www.cordis.lu/fp5/src/calls.htm

FP5 proposal submission forms
www.cordis.lu/fp5/src/forms_a.htm

FP5 infodesk addresses
www.cordis.lu/fp5/src/cont-cec.htm

Evaluation manual FP 5 with the rules for the evaluation of project proposals
www.cordis.lu/fp5/src/evalman.htm

Peer review evaluation process
www.cordis.lu/life/src/library.htm

Frequently Asked Questions
Europa.eu.int/comm/dg12/faq.html

Intellectual property rights FP5 model contract
www.ipr-helpdesk.org/en/booka1.htm

EU tenders/subsidies

The following websites contain calls for tenders:

Evaluation of research: europa.
eu.int/comm/dg13/13call.htm

Opportunities for e.g. training:
europa.eu.int/comm/dg22/callg.html

In development: one-stop shop for all EU calls for tenders: simap.eu.int

Public tenders of EU: Tenders Electronic Daily (TED) free of charge:
http://ted.eur-op.eu.int

Publications

Animal breeding and ethics

The future developments in farm animal breeding and reproduction and their ethical, legal and consumer implications. Report of the EC funded project with the same title. The project is a survey of expert opinions, formed by literature studies, and dialogues among experts and informed key persons. Emphasis on application of modern biotechnology techniques.
A copy of the report is available from the ACTIP Secretariat.

Ethical issues of healthcare in IT

'Ethical issues of healthcare in the information society' is the title of a rather bulky but very informative report, being a July 30, 1999 opinion of the European Group on Ethics (EGE) in Science and New Technologies to the European Commission. It deals with the ethical implications of Electronic Health Records, Networking and Telemedicine, Electronic Health Cards, Decision Support Technologies, Medical Databases and the Internet. A very useful publication, with many appendices explaining the background to new technologies and useful statistics on healthcare and the information society.

A copy of the report is available from the ACTIP Secretariat or directly from the EGE Secretariat: Ms. Isabelle Arnal, fax + 32 2 299 45 65

Genomics review

The BioWorld 2000 Genomics Review has just been launched. It analyses 60 gene discovery and functional geeomics companies.
Tor order: info@bioworld.com

US Biotech companies

Profiles of over 1,400 US companies active in biotechnology can be found in the Biotechnology Guide USA, 5th edition. Each entry contains contact details, revenues, number of employees etc. Price £ 179. For orders, contact: robshaw@macmillan.co.uk

EC publications

FP5 Model Contract

The Innovation and SME programme's IPR-Helpdesk has launched a new booklet covering intellectual property rights (IPR) issues relating to the model contract for FP 5. The booklet gives an overview of the model cost reimbursement contract. It explains the rules, rights and obligations related to IPR and the dissemination and use of research results set out in the contract. The English version is available on the secure area of the ACTIP website and on http://www.cordis.lu/ipr-helpdesk. Otherwise, contact the IPR Helpdesk. Email: info@ipr-helpdesk.org. Fax: + 352 47 11 11 60.