Examples of Lobby
According to SmithKline Beecham lobbyist Simon Gentry, the company allocated 30 million ECU from the start for a pro-Directive campaign. Part of this campaign was direct support of patient charities and organizations. On the day of the July 1997 vote, a number of people in wheelchairs from these groups demonstrated outside the main hall in Strasbourg, chanting the pharmaceutical industry's slogan, "No Patents, No Cure" in an emotional appeal to Parliamentarians to vote for the Directive.
Thus, MEPs perceived a strong and unified position in favour of gene-patenting from the patient interest groups, but it may have only been a minority of vocal groups co-opted by industry to present their message. The Genetic Interest Group (GIG) and the European Alliance of Genetic Support Groups (EAGS) were both against the patenting of genes initially. This changed when SmithKline Beecham began making donations to GIG and they organized an information event on human gene-patenting in Strasbourg in January 1997, which was presented as an event of patient organisations.
Read more about this topic: Directive On The Legal Protection Of Biotechnological Inventions
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