Patent dispute costs Robert Gallo the Nobel Prize

I've written before about how I'm opposed to patents, particularly software patents,
but also patents on biological discoveries. And pro-patent attornies and scientists have argued against me, here on this blog and elsewhere.

But this year's Nobel Prize in Medicine illustrates another peril of patenting, one that I'd never thought of: it can cost you the Nobel Prize.

How is that possible? The 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine went to 3 scientists, Luc Montagnier and Francoise Barre-Sinoussi for their discovery of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and Harald zur Hausen for his discovery that human papilloma virus causes cervical cancer. Notably missing from the prize list was Robert Gallo, who many people believe deserves joint credit with Montagnier for discovering HIV. Montagnier himself commented, after learning that he was awarded the Nobel, that "it is certain that he [Gallo] deserved this as much as us two."

The history of the discovery of HIV has been documented in great detail elsewhere - including a 1993 movie, "And the Band Played On," that I highly recommend. But briefly: in the early 1980s, both Montagnier and Gallo were racing to discover the cause of AIDS. Montagnier is now widely acknowledged as having found it first, although Gallo announced his discovery soon after. The two viruses identified by the scientists were later determined to be the same, but Gallo was, for a while, credited with independently finding the virus. [The Nobel committee, in announcing the prize, said that there was "no dispute" that the French duo had discovered HIV first.] It was only much later - in 1991 - that independent NIH scientists determined that Gallo had, in fact, grown the French strain of HIV, which he had obtained from Montagnier and which had contaminated some of his own samples.

Gallo is, however, given credit for proving that HIV is indeed the causative agent of AIDS. The Nobel committee's press release acknowledges this: "several groups contributed to the definitive demonstration of HIV as the cause of acquired human immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)." Although their press release never mentions Gallo by name, many scientists thought (and still think) that this contribution by Gallo, along with his other groundbreaking AIDS work, would justify him jointly receiving the Nobel.

Now for the patent story: both Gallo and Montagnier filed for patents on a blood test for the AIDS virus. This spawned a huge controversy, in part because Gallo applied first, and also because Gallo's claim excluded Montagnier. The Pasteur Institute (Montagnier's employer at the time) sued the U.S. government in 1985 in an effort to share in the patent royalties. After two years of fighting, the U.S. and France agreed to share royalties on the patents, and in March 1987 President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Jacques Chirac held a joint press conference to announce that Montagnier and Gallo had independently identified the AIDS virus.

It was only after this press conference that scientists discovered that Gallo's virus was actually the same as Montagnier's, and that both must have come from the same patient.

Why did the Nobel committee snub Bob Gallo? Of course, they won't admit that they did any such thing. Gallo and Montagnier themselves have long since repaired their relationship, as indicated by Montagnier's generous comments quoted above. But the patent dispute caused deep and lingering resentment among a much broader community, resentment towards Gallo personally and towards the U.S. and its patent system. As was later revealed in an investigation by the U.S. Congress:

"Just minutes before the press conference, HHS submitted applications for U.S. patents on an HIV antibody blood test and a method of producing the virus. These patent applications contained the seeds of the French/American dispute; they contained fundamental assertions that could not be substantiated. Chief among these was the assertion that, "... we are the original, first and joint inventors ... of the subject matter which is claimed and for which a patent is sought ...." The real inventors of the HIV blood test were the IP [Institute Pasteur] scientists, who had developed and begun to use their blood test the previous Summer (1983). Dr. Gallo knew about the IP blood test. In fact, as early as September 1983, Dr. Gallo and his colleagues actually sent LTCB AIDS patients' samples to Paris to be assayed with the IP blood test.

Dr. Gallo and his colleagues did not disclose to PTO their knowledge and use of the IP blood test, nor did they disclose the IP scientists' considerable body of scientific work on their virus and blood test."

Not surprisingly, the patent application infuriated the Institute Pasteur scientists. NIH didn't behave well either - their response was to defend Gallo's claim uncritically. If Gallo - whose work was all publicly funded by his employer, the NIH - simply hadn't filed for a patent, who knows how things would have turned out?

So here's my advice to scientists with a hot discovery: publish it, and share it freely with the world. Don't apply for a patent on the hope that you will get lucky and cash in - you probably won't. And you never know what kinds of backlash a patent application may cause. You might just cost yourself a Nobel Prize.