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What DeLauro Can Do
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Business New Haven
11/12/2001
By: BNH
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Four weeks ago in this space, we criticized Mayor John DeStefano Jr., U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-3) and others for failing to show their faces at the October 3, 2001 Southern Connecticut Business Expo at Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The week after the editorial was published, we received a phone call from a very nice member of DeLauro's staff who conveyed the congresswoman's displeasure at being thusly taken to task, since Congress was in session on the day of the trade show, requiring her to be in Washington.
We therefore apologize to Rep. DeLauro. We agree that combatting terrorism was more important.
But here's a way she can accomplish both: by becoming an outspoken advocate for protecting patent rights.
Since the anthrax scare followed so closely on the heels of the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, the issue of patent rights has come center-stage. U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) went so far as to suggest Congress should take the extraordinary action of withdrawing patent protection for the antibiotic Cipro, allowing other pharmaceutical firms to manufacture the drug in mass quantities quickly.
Cipro, of course, is made right here in good ol' West Haven by the North American pharmaceutical division of Bayer AG.
Which is precisely the point. Of course DeLauro ought to be fighting for the rights of her corporate constituent, (and its thousands of employees) Bayer, to benefit from the ingenuity of its scientists and researchers.
And what about the many other bioscience and pharmaceutical companies in her district, such as Genaissance and CuraGen? The principals and workers at these firms have staked their careers - and investors' millions - on their ability to identify, isolate and, eventually market unique therapies and compounds.
Without sturdy patent protection, these science innovators simply won't exist. This region's leaders to a large degree have staked its future on industries that need strong patent protection to attract investment and to generate growth. That protection was under attack before September 11 and it sufferred mightily in the Cipro debate.
Representative DeLauro should meet with the region's pharmaceutical and bioscience companies and clarify their needs and concerns and act publicly and aggressively to protect their interests.
It's the American way.
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