Expiring Patents and Regulatory Issues in the Biotech Crop Market by Maria Atia
Biotech crops were first introduced in the U.S. in 1994. These crops with better traits were highly received by the farmers and since then they have been a major part of the seed market in U.S. All the traits introduced in the biotech crops introduced in the market were patented and rights protected by the developers. As a result all such crops seeds available in the market were costly. But still the farmers preferred them because of their qualities such as high yields, deliverance of significant environmental benefits and increased per-acre profitability.
The patents are only for a specific period of time. During that time period no other company can make the same product with that specific trait. But once the patent expires, other companies are at full liberty to make and sell that product. The same is going to happen for biotech crop seeds in the coming decade. Gregory Conko, CEI Senior Fellow, in his study, “Is There a Future for Generic Biotech Crops?”, has mentioned that patent of almost 22 biotech traits including Monsanto’s Roundup Ready soybean trait will expire in the next 10 years, Roundup soybean being the most widely and largely accepted and used biotech crop.
He has also mentioned that although 15 million farmers in 28 countries around the world use the biotech seeds, all of them are awaiting the expiry of patents of those seeds. This is so because when the patents expire other companies would be able to produce that seed with the specific trait and sell it to farmers for much cheaper rates. This helps in booming of the generic biotech seed market. In other industries, patent expiries always end up benefiting the consumers, allowing same products being cheaply available but not in biotech crop market.
The main element of Conko’s study is the problem that will be faced by companies in order to reproduce the trait in crops on their own. What goes on is this that the biotech crop traits are to be reapproved every 3-5 years. For the re-approval process secret business information, known only by the original developers, is required. The generic market progress halts at this step. Conko mentioned in his study that this whole process is a very time consuming and costly process and does nothing other than keeping away the would-be generic opponents from the brand-name biotech companies.
For all things to work out ways are being sought to help both the generic seed developers and the biotech industry developers. If such an agreement is not achieved the farmers will suffer by spending more on the generic seeds than they did on the biotech crop seeds. Hopes are that the biotech companies will agree on sharing some of their knowledge so that farmers may be helped and the generic seed market may develop.
-Maria
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