On 21 September 2011, after more than one hundred written submissions and two days of public hearings, the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee has recommended that the Senate should NOT pass the Bill.
In arriving at its recommendation, the Committee considered a number of key issues. An example of these issues and the findings included:
- The distinction between discovery and invention - The Committee noted that although the Bill sought to clarify the distinction between discovery and invention, the amendments proposed would not assist to clarify that distinction and may make the distinction more obscure.
- Impact on treatments, methods and healthcare - The Committee indicated in their Report that there was no evidence that patents were adversely impacting on the provision of healthcare in Australia.
- Freedom to research - It was disagreed that the Bill would provide certainty for scientists conducting research on biological material and concluded that the amendments in the "Raising the Bar" Bill regarding a research exemption would provide greater certainty for researchers.
- Impact on investment - It was agreed that without certainty in relation to patent protection for biological materials, companies would have less incentive to develop and commercialise new products for the Australian market or, alternatively, a greater incentive not to publicly disclose inventions.
The Committee agreed that that although the Bill was "well intentioned" it did not represent an effective solution to any potential or perceived problems that may be caused by the patenting of biological material. It is evident that the debate is not yet complete with the Bill now likely to be brought back to the Senate, with the amendments proposed in the dissenting report. The issue now will be whether such an amended version of the Bill would be able to get sufficient support for it to pass the Senate.
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