You may have seen a video or a post on social networks relaying the information that the coronavirus was “invented” in 2003, and is the subject of a patent (EP1694829) issued by the Institut Pasteur. We’ll let our colleagues at the Institut Pasteur answer your questions on the scientific side, via their press release, which you can find here, and we’ll concentrate solely on the patent, to shed some light on this story, for which we’ve already had questions today as biotech patent specialists.
Analyzing a virus is not inventing a virus
The Institut Pasteur patent is indeed a European patent in force in France, but its inventors, i.e. the people who made a significant contribution to the conception of the invention, did not “invent” a virus, they actually analyzed this virus and identified a polypeptide (a small piece of virus protein). This polypeptide is sufficiently significant for it to be used to produce a diagnostic test and vaccine strategy against the said virus. As a reminder, this strain of virus is certainly a member of the Coronavirus family, but it is by no means the particular COVID-19 strain that is currently affecting us.
This is the strain of coronavirus responsible for the 2003 SARS outbreak, one of the very many coronaviruses in existence. In addition, this patent, like all patents, includes a section presenting results enabling the efficacy of the invention to be characterized. Here, the vaccine strategy is tested in mice by characterizing the presence of antibodies.
Patenting to ensure reproducibility of vaccine strategy
Finally, the deposit of biological material is a particularity of this type of biotechnology patent involving bacteria or viruses. The applicant is obliged to deposit the biological material (a sample of the virus) with a regulated organization (such as the Institut Pasteur), which will store the material and issue a deposit number to be indicated in the patent, so that the patented invention – in this case, the vaccine strategy against the virus – can be reproduced by other laboratories, particularly once the patent has fallen into the public domain, and even before, since it is permitted to use a patented invention for research purposes.
A patent is a scientific and legal document to be analyzed by professionals.
However, although the information in these videos is abusive and caricatured, the reflex to search the patent literature for scientific information is interesting. In fact, this literature abounds in scientific information in all technical fields, making it a veritable bibliographical source for researchers and the simply curious, which could, for example, lead to the discovery of new therapeutic and vaccine avenues. However, before distributing analyses of these patents, which are complex scientific and legal documents, it may be useful to consult an accredited patent attorney to validate their relevance…
