Biology Goes Open Source 100
cford writes "According to Forbes some of the drug company giants are finally realizing that their genetic research is worth more if they give it away. 'Novartis, the Basel, Switzerland, drug giant, has helped uncover which of the 20,000 genes identified by the Human Genome Project are likely to be associated with diabetes. But rather than hoard this information, as drug firms have traditionally done, it is making it available for free on the World Wide Web. "It will take the entire world to interpret these data," says Novartis research head Mark Fishman. "We figure we will benefit more by having a lot of companies look at these data than by holding it secret."'"
What do you know (Score:3, Interesting)
we'll never have enough computing power (Score:0, Interesting)
The answer is we can never have enough. To cure many of our worst diseases we will need to simulate molecular interactions on the nanoscale and determine how to safely fix what goes wrong. That requires an unbelievable amount of computing power.
Re:What do you know (Score:2, Interesting)
Thusjanthan Kubendranathan
An example of what should be done! (Score:2, Interesting)
I call BS (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Yeah, but... (Score:3, Interesting)
Or, in Slashdot-ese:
Step 1: Identify all of the human genes (the HGP)
Step 2: Find which of these genes are associated with diabetes
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit!
obsession with cost (Score:2, Interesting)
Don't worry, it's not a problem if millions die now, they will die anyway, to have this research done means more than to lose even a billion people to a disease.
Cheers.
Why this hype? (Score:3, Interesting)
A lot of private firms have identified disease susceptibility genes. There is a company in Iceland called 'deCode' - http://www.decode.com/ [decode.com] which has been doing this stuff for many years now, exploiting the fact the iceland has a relatively stable and homogenous genetic population. They have genetic data available for more than 25% of the population of Iceland and they have innumerable papers and free online resources.
Not to mention the federal govt. has been doing this forever now and 'Human Genome Project' and 'Hapmap project' are well known.
Novartis fighting India over generic drugs (Score:3, Interesting)
You are quite right when you say that patent may be good for the pharmaceutical companies, but are terrible for the rest of the world.
In India, Novartis is using all its legal muscle to challenge a provision in the Indian patent law that has made it possible for India to develop a strong generic drugs industry. This has made affordable medicines available not only in India, but to other developing countries as well. If Novartis wins the case, this could mean that access to affordable drugs in the third world will be drastically reduced.
There was an article at OneWorld South Asia [oneworld.net] about the case recently:
So if anyone thinks of Novartis and the other big pharma companies as a bunch of good guys, he should think again.
Re:obsession with cost (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, people do have a history of being upset with someone who says "Your money or your life."
We might chalk it up to basic human irrationality. After all, there are several popular economic theories that explain to us why the companies' behavior is rational. And we all know that we're going to die anyway. What does it matter to the universe (or the economy) if you or I die today or 20 years from now? Not much, really, unless you or I is a major celebrity. But still, people irrationally insist on wanting to live longer, and they even more irrationally insist on not becoming homeless paupers in order to stay alive.
Dunno how we can get people to behave rationally, though. Let us know if you figure out how.