Bridging the gap between bioethics and patent law

PatentsinHumans is a five-year interdisciplinary project funded by a European Research Council (ERC) Starting grant led by Professor Aisling McMahon, School of Law and Criminology, Maynooth University.

This project aims to develop a comprehensive understanding of the bioethical issues posed by patents, and how such patents are used, over technologies related to the human body. It will interrogate to what extent such bioethical issues are considered, if at all, within European patent decision-making for these technologies. Ultimately, the project aims to reimagine European patent decision-making to further embed bioethical considerations in patent grant and licensing systems for such technologies.

The five main types of patentable technologies related to the human body which will be examined during this project include:

Patentable technologies which treat the body

e.g. medicines, elements of vaccines etc

Patentable technologies which act on the body

e.g. elements of diagnostic tests

Patentable technologies that are in the body

e.g. isolated human genes

Patentable technologies that can be integrated with the body

e.g. elements of medical devices, prosthetics etc.

Patentable technologies that are akin to the human body or which can modify the body

e.g. neuro-technologies, gene editing techniques etc.

To learn more about the PatentsInHumans Project, please watch this short video from Principal Investigator, Professor Aisling McMahon.

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An ERC funded project @MaynoothUni investigating the role of bioethics in patent decision-making for technologies related to the human body. PI @aislingmmcmahon

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Avatar Fergus Ryan/Fearghus Ó Riain @ferguswryan ·
3 May

Delighted for our @MaynoothLaw colleague, Prof. @AislingMMcMahon, IRC Early Career Researcher of the Year 2023, who has been appointed as member of the Irish National Research Ethics Committee for Clinical Trials. Comhghairdeas leat! https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/news-events/professor-aisling-mcmahon-appointed-member-irish-national-research-ethics-committee-clinical-trials

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Avatar Aisling McMahon @aislingmmcmahon ·
2 May

Wonderful to be at @complexmarkets @MISFIRES_ERC & targeting therapies conference today and looking forward to a fantastic line up of speakers on healthcare markets and targeted therapies #healthcaremarkets

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Avatar PatentsInHumans @patentsinhumans ·
2 May

Paper by @PatentsInHumans @AislingMMcMahon and Dr Opeyemi Kolawole now trending in law - it examines #biobank donation #publicbenefits and #IPRs - available open access in #medicallawreview here:

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