* INDIGENOUS PERSON FROM PAPUA NEW GUINEA CLAIMED IN US GOVERNMENT PATENT * "Another major step down the road to the commodification of life" says Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI) Director Pat Mooney. * RAFI moves to take the life patenting issue to the World Court. * Patenting Indigenous People In an unprecedented move, the United States Government has issued itself a patent on a foreign citizen. On March 14, 1995, an indigenous man of the Hagahai people from Papua New Guinea's remote highlands ceased to own his genetic material. While the rest of the world is seeking to protect the knowledge and resources of indigenous people, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is patenting them. "This patent is another major step down the road to the commodification of life. In the days of colonialism, researchers went after indigenous people's resources and studied their social organizations and customs. But now, in biocolonial times, they are going after the people themsleves" says Pat Roy Mooney, RAFI's Executive Director, who is at The Hague investigating prospects for a World Court challenge to the patenting of human genetic material. The Hagahai, who number a scant 260 persons and only came into consistent contact with the outside world in 1984, now find their genetic material - the very core of their physical identity - the property of the United States Government. The same patent application is pending in 19 other countries. Though one of the "inventors,"resident in Papua New Guinea, apparently signed an agreement giving a percentage of any royalties to the Hagahai, the patent makes no concrete provision for the Hagahai to receive any compensation for becoming the property of the US Government.. Indeed, the Hagahai are likely to continue to suffer threats to their very survival from disease and other health problems brought by outsiders. RAFI's Jean Christie has recently returned to Australia after consultations with the governments of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands (one of whose citizens is also subject to claims in a related US Government patent application). On her return from Port Moresby and Honiara, Christie said "This outrageous patent has provoked anger in the Pacific and is a matter of deep concern worldwide." In response to 1993 investigations by the Government of the Solomon Islands and RAFI, NIH's Jonathan Friedlander (Physical Anthropology Program Director) wrote to the Solomon Islands Ambassador to the United Nations, allaying their concerns by saying that the patent applications "will likely be abandoned entirely or not allowed." Contrary to Friedlander's indication, in the course of routine research prior to Christie's trip to the Pacific RAFI discovered that the patent was issued 6 months ago. Linked to the "Vampire Project"? The first-ever patent of an indigenous person comes as an international group of scientists are embarking on the Human Genome Diversity Project (HGDP), which aims to draw blood and tissue samples from as many indigenous groups in the world as possible. While the Hagahai are not specifically mentioned in the draft "hit list" of the HGDP -- dubbed the "vampire project" by its opponents worldwide -- it has targeted over 700 indigenous groups, including 41 from Papua New Guinea, for "sampling" by researchers. Friedlander, who wrote that the patent application would likely be withdrawn, participated in the development of the HGDP and was among those at its founding meeting. Within weeks of the patent's issue, Friedlander returned the Pacific on business related to the collection of blood samples. At the same time, indigenous people and NGOs from across the Pacific are working on the implementation of a "Lifeforms Patent-Free Pacific Treaty." As recently as last week's UNESCO Bioethics Committee meeting, HGDP Director Dr. Luca Cavalli-Sforza claimed that the project did not support the patenting of indigenous peoples' DNA. In contrast, at the Beijing Women's Conference, Sami indigenous women from the Nordic countries added their voice to the dozens of indigenous peoples' organizations that have denounced the project as a violation of their rights. "The thin veneer of the HGDP as an academic, non-commercial exercise has been shattered by the US government patenting an indigenous person from Papua New Guinea," said Edward Hammond, Program Officer with RAFI-USA in North Carolina. The Value of Human DNA: Mining Indigenous Communities for Raw Materials NIH's patent (US 5,397,696) claims a cell line containing the unmodified Hagahai DNA and several methods for its use in detecting HTLV-1-related retroviruses. The team that patented the cell line is headed by the 1976 Nobel Laureate in Medicine, Dr. D.Carleton Gajdusek. Recent cases have concretely demonstrated the economic value of human DNA from remote populations in the diagnosis and treatment of disease and development of vaccines. Blood samples drawn from the asthmatic inhabitants of the remote South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha were sold by researchers to a California-based company which in turn sold rights to its as yet unproved technologies for asthma treatment to German giant Boehringer Ingelheim for US $70 million. NIH patent claims on indigenous people's genetic material are pursued abroad by the National Technical Information Service, a division of the US Department of Commerce. Ronald Brown, the US Secretary of Commerce has left no question as to his interpretation of the controversy, stating "Under our laws... subject matter relating to human cells is patentable and there is no provision for considerations relating to the source of the cells that may be the subject of a patent application." The Hagahai, and millions of other indigenous people, in other words, are raw material for US business. RAFI believes that this is only the beginning of a dangerous trend toward the commodification of humanity and the knowledge of indigenous people. Whether human genetic material or medicinal plants are the target, there is scarcely a remote rural group in the world that is not being visited by predatory researchers. Indigenous people, whose unique identity is in part reflected in their genes, are prime targets of gene hunters. Says Leonora Zalabata of the Arhuaco people of Colombia: "This could be another form of exploitation, only this time they are using us as raw materials." RAFI Challenges the Patenting of Human Beings RAFI has been closely following the patenting of indigenous people since 1993, when pressure from RAFI and the Guaymi General Congress led to the withdrawal of a patent application by the US Secretary of Commerce on a cell line from a Guaymi indigenous woman from Panama. RAFI is currently investigating prospects to bring the issue of human patenting to the World Court at the Hague as well as the Biodiversity Convention and relevant multilateral bodies. CONTACTS: Pat Mooney, Executive Director Ottawa, ONT (Canada) (613) 567-6= 880 Jean Christie, International Liaison Queensland, Australia (61) 79 394-792 Edward Hammond, Program Officer Pittsboro, NC (USA) (919) 542-1396 DATE: 4 October 1995