|
The
bio-innovation conference: where biotechnology and intellectual
property meet
Maine Science and Technology Foundation
June 27, 2002
SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine – New biotechnology products and
advances – including gene-based cancer therapies, tests
for cancer-causing genes, and machines that sequence
DNA – have already affected how doctors treat patients
and how the pharmaceutical industry discovers new drugs.
But
with these developments come serious legal and ethical
questions: Who has the right to patent genes? Is it
ethical and moral to clone human embryos to cure disease?
When should responsible researchers license discoveries
to companies that want to commercialize them? And how
can concerned citizens sort through policy debates about
human therapeutic cloning and stem cell research?
Those
and other questions were discussed at the University
of Maine School of Law Technology Law Center's "Bio-Innovation
Strategies for Success" conference on June 20-21, 2002.
Rita
Heimes, director of the Technology Law Center (TLC),
said about 80 lawyers, law professors, biotechnology
company representatives, and researchers participated
in the conference, which encouraged debate between speakers
and attendees.
The
Technology Law Center was established by the Maine State
Legislature in 1999 to educate students, attorneys,
and businesses in intellectual property, e-commerce,
and other technology-related law questions. The TLC
also administers the Maine Patent Program, which provides
patent education and advice to Maine inventors, small
businesses, and entrepreneurs.
DAY
ONE PRESENTATIONS
Intellectual
Property Strategies for Biotech Businesses and Research
Institutions
William
Harris, MD, Ph.D., MariCal, Portland, ME
David
Brook, Esq., Hamilton Brook Smith & Reynolds, Concord,
MA
Moderator:
Jane Sheehan, Esq., Foundation for Blood Research, Scarborough,
ME
Protein
and Gene Discoveries: Revolutionary Drugs, Controversial
Patents
Scott
Brown, Esq., Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge,
MA
Steven
Lazar, Esq., GPC Biotech Inc., Waltham, MA
Moderator:
Christine Vito, Ph.D., Esq., Testa Hurwitz Thibeault,
Boston, MA
"A
Life in the Day"
Kathy
Biberstein, Esq., Biotechnology Adviser, Crowell & Moring
Public
and Private Financing for Biotech Businesses
Jeffrey
Moore, Ph.D., Phylogix Inc., Scarborough, ME
Janet
Yancey-Wrona, Ph.D., Maine Technology Institute, Gardiner,
ME
Kerri-Ann
Jones, Ph.D., Maine EPSCoR, Portland, ME
Braden
Bohrmann, Masthead Venture Partners, Portland, ME
Moderator:
John Carpenter, Esq., Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer & Nelson,
Portland, ME
"Charting
the Biotechnology Frontier: The Story Behind the First
Human Cloned Embryo"
Michael
West, Ph.D., Advanced Cell Technology, Worcester, MA
DAY
TWO PRESENTATIONS
|
