Subject: French Scientists Sue U. S. on AIDS Research, Royalties Date: Published: 12/16/85 107 lines Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. French Scientists Sue U. S. on AIDS Research, Royalties --- Federal Suit by Paris Center Is Expected to Divert Attention From Disease --- By Marilyn Chase Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal A long-smoldering dispute between French and American scientists over AIDS research and royalties from kits used to test for the virus has led to a federal lawsuit that likely will divert their energies from ending the epidemic. The Pasteur Institute, a nonprofit Paris research center, charged in a suit filed last Thursday that the U. S. government, through its health agencies, committed a scientific "breach of contract" by allegedly basing an American patent on prior French research and virus samples, contrary to a written promise. The suit asks the U. S. Claims Court in Washington to declare that the French were first to discover the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome, and to award them all future test-kit royalties, which some have estimated could amount to $5 million a year. The French also asked for damages in excess of $1 million. Robert C. Gallo, the National Cancer Institute's chief of tumor cell biology and chief holder of the U. S. patent, hotly denied the French charges and called their bid for royalties and damages "irrational" and "obscene." The French team, led by Luc Montagnier, first published its discovery of a virus called LAV, for lymphadenopathy-associated virus, in May 1983, based on a sample from one patient. Dr. Gallo's team published its findings of a virus called HTLVIII, using 48 virus samples, in April 1984. The French applied for a U. S. patent in December 1983; the Americans in April 1984. But while the French request is still pending, a U. S. patent was swiftly issued, in May 1985. While the French team was first to publish its findings, the American team created the technology to grow the deadly virus in volume, which Dr. Gallo says is crucial to making a patentable invention. "If first publication counts, it's them. If mass-producing the virus and linking it to AIDS counts, it's us," Dr. Gallo said in a telephone interview. Dr. Montagnier couldn't be reached for comment. Central to the French team's complaint is a virus sample it sent to Dr. Gallo in September 1983 as part of a collaboration on AIDS back when the French and Americans were more like colleagues than contenders. In effect, the French and their supporters suggest that Dr. Gallo misappropriated the French virus and presented it in his work, which later was patented. Dr. Gallo refutes this, saying that the LAV and HTLV-III strains, although related, aren't identical, differing by 2% of their genetic building blocks. Besides, the single LAV sample was too small to be of practical use, he argues; moreover, he had isolated 48 virus samples of his own on which to base his publications and patent. In a telephone interview from Paris on Saturday, Pasteur Institute spokeswoman Caroline Chaine characterized the French grievance as "one part scientific and ethical, and one part commercial and industrial." The French insist the priority of their publication be recognized on principle. But they also acknowledge money as a major motive for the suit. As reported, scientists of the National Institutes of Health licensed their technology to five companies for the manufacture and marketing of antibody tests that now are used nationwide in blood screening. The 5% royalties on sales are turned over to the U. S. Treasury. For six months before the suit was filed, the Pasteur Institute and the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services had conducted testy negotiations in an attempt to settle the dispute. The talks broke off last Wednesday after the French rejected a final U. S. proposal that reportedly offered, in part: -- A statement recognizing the French as "co-inventors." -- The right to market the French test kit in the U. S. through the institute's U. S. licensee, Genetic Systems Corp. of Seattle. -- Freedom from paying the U. S. royalties on such sales. Spokesmen for the Pasteur Institute confirmed that the French insisted on the inclusion of shared royalties in any settlement. In the lawsuit's next phase, James Swire, a New York lawyer for the Pasteur Institute, said he will proceed with legal discovery focusing on "what really happened" to the virus sample his clients sent to the National Institutes of Health. In the midst of the AIDS epidemic, however, Dr. Gallo and other American scientists said they regretted that the lawsuit would divert their time and energies from the laboratory and into litigation. Mr. Swire conceded the lawsuit is "a sad event. The efforts of the scientific community should be devoted to attacking this disease," but added that the French felt they had no other choice. (This article is made available here by Dow Jones Co. for the personal and non-commercial use of callers to this bbs, in the hope that it will be of some help to those who are suffering from the disease and others who are seeking to help them.)