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Genentech, Incyte Genomics Executives To Testify At House Hearing On Gene-Based Patents

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 12, 2000) - Executives from two Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) member companies will testify Thursday, July 13, at a U.S. House Judiciary subcommittee oversight hearing on patents for gene-based inventions.

Dr. Randal W. Scott, Incyte Genomics president and chief scientific officer, and Dr. Dennis J. Henner, Genentech senior vice president of research, will discuss the significance of patents to development of gene-based medicines and other products.

BIO also has prepared a report on gene-based patents, titled "Primer: Genome and Genetic Research, Patent Protection and 21st Century Medicine." It will be posted on BIO's Web site Thursday in the Issues & Policies section under Genomics.

Other witnesses at the judiciary subcommittee hearing Thursday include Todd Dickinson, under secretary of the U.S. Commerce Department and commissioner of the Patent and Trademark Office; Dr. Harold Varmus, president and CEO of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; and Dr. Jon F. Merz, assistant professor of bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bioethics.

WHAT: House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property Oversight Hearing

WHEN: Thursday, July 13, 2000; 9:30 a.m.

WHERE: 2141 Rayburn House Office Building

BIO represents more than 900 companies, academic institutions and biotech centers in 50 states and 26 nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of health-care, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products.