The normally civil world of international health diplomacy was shattered yesterday, when Saudi Arabia complained that a patent taken out by Dutch scientists who isolated the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus was impeding Saudi efforts to track the virus within its own borders.

“Deals between scientists because they want to take intellectual property… are issues we need to address,” said World Health Organization director-general Margaret Chan in response. “No IP will stand in the way of public health.”

The Dutch researchers, based at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, say the patent does nothing to stop the Saudis developing their own tests for the coronavirus that causes MERS. The Dutch have themselves developed and published tests for both the virus and antibodies to it, essential for tracking its spread. And they say they have sent the virus to 40 labs, some of which are developing their own tests, and that they are willing to send the virus to any laboratories who can handle it safely.

There have so far been 44 known cases of MERS worldwide, with more than 20 deaths. The Dutch team says it has repeatedly offered tests for MERS to the Saudis. Ab Osterhaus, head of the virology department at Erasmus, says the Saudis have not replied.


There has been criticism that the Saudis have been slow to investigate the epidemic. Speaking at the World Health Assembly, the annual meeting of the World Health Organization’s 194 member countries, Ziad Memish, the deputy Saudi health minister, said that the country has been struggling to develop diagnostics because the virus has been patented.

Reuters quoted him as saying: “The virus was sent out of the country and it was patented, contracts were signed with vaccine companies and antiviral drug companies, and that’s why they have a Material Transfer Agreement… and that should not happen.” A Material Transfer Agreement specifies what providers and recipients of biological material can and cannot do with it.

Routine patenting

Patenting sounds like profiteering. But all labs that discover viruses routinely patent the sequences they work to uncover, and their prospective applications. Osterhaus says this is needed for the discovery to be used for public health.

“If we don’t patent it, no company will develop vaccines or diagnostic tests with it, because they won’t be able to acquire clear ownership,” he says. Commercial companies are the major source of tests and vaccines in most countries.

Alternatively, one company might acquire a patent on a viral discovery, then demand royalties to work on the virus, even if the company itself is not. Osterhaus says that is not what they are doing at Erasmus. “If any lab asks us for a sample, we send it to them free, if they have the containment to use it safely,” he says.

If the Saudis develop their own tests, says Ron Fouchier, who identified MERS, they would not have to pay royalties to Rotterdam “unless they start selling it for lots of money to the rest of the world”.

Even then the Saudis may still be able to claim some rights over the virus, as the 1993 Biodiversity Convention gives countries ownership of their genetic resources. It is not clear, however, to what extent that applies to pathogens.

The Saudis’ problems seem to stem from how the virus was identified. “There was a lag of three months where we were not aware of the discovery of the virus,” Memish said in Geneva.

The virus was identified in June 2012, and announced in September, when technical details of the research had been double-checked as normal, says Osterhaus. With only one known infection, there seemed little need for more urgency.

Osterhaus has offered to meet with Memish to resolve the dispute.