Drug firms to get patents on space research

TOKYO, Nov. 11 (Kyodo) — Japan’s space agency is drawing up new rules to give pharmaceutical companies all the intellectual property rights deriving from space research on protein crystal structures, agency sources said Tuesday.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) hopes the new rules will provide an incentive to pharmaceutical companies to promote research to create protein crystals in space, and use these crystals to help contribute to the development of new drugs, the sources said.

Hopes are high that finer protein crystals, made in the space, could give a better picture of the features of the protein structure, when observed under X-rays, and largely expedite the development of new drugs, scientists say.

In the past, the rule was for the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) — one of the entities absorbed by the newly formed JAXA — to share patents with the drug firms. There were three protein crystal growth experiments done on U.S. shuttle missions.

The new rules are being drawn up ahead of the Japanese experimental module Kibo (Hope) docking with the International Space Station, in case firms ask the agency to do some space research there, the sources said.

Japan had hoped to see the module sent into orbit in 2006 but the schedule is likely to be pushed back.

The envisioned initiative on protein-linked space research and patents will be reported to a space activities panel under the science ministry next month.

Researchers place great hopes in studies of protein crystal growth, given that many diseases, including diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease, stems from protein.

Research done this year on the Russian space vehicle Soyuz showed that protein crystals created in zero-gravity conditions are more than twice as fine in texture and easier to analyze than those grown on Earth.

According to the sources, the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, and 22 pharmaceutical firms are scheduled to take part in four experiments on protein crystal growth beginning next year.

The Tokyo-based JAXA was launched Oct. 1 from a merger of three space and aeronautical entities, namely NASDA, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, and the National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan.