Ebola in Texas.

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Biological patents in the United States

"The invention provides the isolated human Ebola (hEbola) viruses denoted as Bundibugyo (EboBun) deposited with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”; Atlanta, Ga., United States of America) on Nov. 26, 2007 and accorded an accession number 200706291."

The act of isolating the virus is enough to have changed it from its natural state.

Can you patent a disease?

In the case of a gene, modifying its information or removing it from its chromosome typically would be enough to warrant a patent, says Schwartz, because the snippet of chromosome would not appear in nature by itself.

This is a key point in the case of the novel coronavirus. To pinpoint it, Erasmus likely used what is called "deep sequencing," says Earl Brown, executive director of the Emerging Pathogens Research Centre at the University of Ottawa

In this process, the infected sample would be run against databases of known genes and viruses to determine its genetic composition. Brown says the researchers would then typically remove the sequence from its chromosome and copy it in order to conduct further tests.

The rationale for patenting a genetic sequence such as the novel coronavirus is to be able to develop products, such as diagnostic tests or a vaccine, that could be marketed and sold, says Bernard Dickens, professor emeritus of Health Law and Policy at the University of Toronto.

This is similar to the information in the CDC "EboBun" patents. Ebola Bundibugyo was discovered in 2008. It is significantly genetically different (which makes it novel) than the previous 4 known strains. The CDC had to perform significant genetic sequencing to identify that it was ebola . The CDC is also the source of record for the specific DNA sequence which is available "to approved facilities for thirty years from the date of deposit, and for the lifetime of the patent issuing from, or claiming priority to this application."

Bundibugyo - New Species Of Ebola Virus Discovered

The new virus is genetically distinct from all other known Ebola virus species, differing by more than 30% at the genetic level. More traditional ELISA-based assays detected the new virus; however, the unique nature of this virus created initial challenges for traditional Ebola virus molecular diagnostic assays and genome sequencing approaches. To determine the genetic signature of this new Ebola virus species, scientists used a recently developed random-primed pyro-sequencing approach, quickly determining the genetic sequence of over 70% of the virus genome.

Knowledge of this sequence then allowed for the rapid development of a sensitive molecular detection assay which was deployed to the field as part of the outbreak response. This draft sequence also allowed for easy completion of the whole genome sequence using a traditional primer walking approach and prompt confirmation that this virus represented a new Ebola virus species. Current worldwide efforts to design effective diagnostics, antivirals and vaccines will need to take into account the distinct nature of this new member of the Ebola virus genus.