October 25, 2011

European ruling on patents for human embryonic stem cells

The European Court of Justice ruled on 18 October 2011 that patents for techniques using human embryonic stem cells should not be allowed.

The ruling is the result of a case from Germany, where a researcher patented a technique to generate brain stem cells from cells from human embryonic stem cells.

Why does this matter?

Patenting a medical treatment or technology is often considered to be an essential part of being able to commercialise that product. This can help businesses – such as pharmaceutical companies – to protect the returns for the substantial research investment they have made to develop that product.

Without the ability to patent therapies involving embryonic stem cells, businesses might feel that Europe is a less attractive place to invest in regenerative medicine research.

What does this mean for heart patients?

Through the Mending Broken Hearts Appeal, we’re aiming to invest £50 million into a major programme of regenerative medicine – specifically world-leading stem cell and developmental biology research to help the heart to repair itself. This is expected to be a 15-20 year research programme, aiming to commence early clinical trials within five years and full clinical trials in about 10 years.

While we are concerned by the ECJ ruling, and it will no doubt be disappointing to some researchers, it should not affect our ability to deliver our regenerative medicine programme.

Are human embryonic stem cells the only option for mending broken hearts?

Research using human embryonic stem cells is vital to decipher how the heart and circulation develops – giving us vital clues to advance regenerative medicine. But we believe regenerative medicine treatments for conditions such as heart failure are more likely to use other types of cells, rather than be derived from embryonic stem cells themselves.

In addition, by funding clinical trials ourselves through the Mending Broken Hearts Appeal, we hope that regenerative medicine therapies resulting from BHF-funded research will be less reliant on corporate investment.

What does this mean for the future of heart research in the UK?

Despite the ECJ ruling, the UK has a progressive regulatory environment for science, and is a world leader in research.

We’re confident we will continue to attract the best scientists from around the world to help us accelerate the pace of cardiac regenerative medicine; and to mend broken hearts.