Scientific and Commercial Development of Human Cell Lines

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Abstract
MUCH has been written in recent years about the property interests of patients in commercial products developed from human cell lines.1 2 3 4 Most of these commentaries have been rendered obsolete by a recent ruling of the Supreme Court of California. In a long-awaited decision in Moore v. Regents of the University of California,5 a majority of the court denied that the patient, Moore, had any property interest in his discarded tissue, which consisted mainly of tissue removed from his spleen in a therapeutic procedure to retard his leukemia, plus blood, bone marrow, and sperm contributed over time. All the tissues were retained by Moore's attending physician, Dr. David Golde, allegedly to further Golde's scientific and commercial interests and those of a research colleague, as well as the University of California, which later obtained a patent on the cell line, and two private corporations, Genetics Institute and Sandoz Pharmaceuticals.

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