STRASBOURG, July 16 (Reuter) - A controversial plan to allow companies in the European Union to win patents covering certain human body parts and other living material cleared its first hurdle in the European Parliament on Wednesday.
After vetoing in 1995 a draft EU law on patents for biotechnological inventions, including genetic engineering, Euro-MPs on Wednesday approved a new proposal from the European Commission -- amid heavy lobbying by industrial, environmental and medical groups.
While the new text says ``discoveries'' of elements that already exist in nature can never be patented, it allows for patents on ``inventions'' using this basic biological material to solve particular medical and agricultural problems.
To the outrage of Green Euro-MPs and others who believe the proposal goes too far in allowing industrial companies to own living human, animal or plant material, the law also permits the patenting of human genes and other parts of the body if they are ``isolated from the human body or otherwise produced by means of a technical process.''
This will be allowed ``even if the structure of that element is identical to that of a natural element,'' although the patent application must cite an industrial application.
The draft directive, which now goes to EU ministers before returning to the parliament for a final assessment, also permits processes which modify the genetic identity of animals, so long as this does not cause suffering ``disproportionate to the objectives pursued.''
Green attempts to outlaw the use of genetic knowledge to produce biological weapons failed to win enough support from the rest of the EU assembly.
Parliament's approval of the Commission text without substantial change marks a significant step in a nine-year quest to agree EU-wide patenting laws.
Supporters of the proposal said it was necessary to harmonise the EU bloc's 15 sets of national laws to encourage European investment in the potential lucrative biotechnology industry and end the risk of legal challenges.
The Commission and industry argue that companies should be able to patent inventions using human material to stop others profiting free of charge from their time-consuming and costly efforts to find cures for cancer and other diseases.
The result was welcomed by the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries' Associations, which said the protection for investment offered by patenting would help European companies catch up with their American and Japanese competitors.
But a group of eight prominent environmental and animal welfare groups slammed the parliament's decision, saying Euro-MPs had ``voted against the expressed concerns of virtually all sectors of European civil society to allow patents on life -- for the sole benefit of the large biotech companies.''
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