There are two patents that I know of in which a HMBANA milk bank was used.
These two patents are on the real human milk component, Human Milk Fat Globule
(HMFG). They are patents are # 5505955 "Anti-diarrheic product and method of
treating rotavirus-associated infection," and # 5667797 "Anti-viral
composition and kit and use for treating rotovirus infection and diarrhea." These
patents were invented by Jerry Peterson, Robert Yolken, and David Newburg and
assigned to Senomed, inc.; Cancer Research Fund of Contra Costa, and John Hopkins
University School of Medicine with the statement that the US Government may
have rights in this invention. They were filed in 1995 and 1996. Milk was
obtained from the Central Massachusetts Regional Milk Bank of Worcester,
Massachusetts. This milk bank at that time was part of HMBANA and has since closed.
I contacted Mary Rose Tully several years ago about this situation and was
told in regard to my request for the Central Massachusetts Regional Milk Bank
records about this that they were not available.
HMFG is to be used in a variety of foods and drugs to treat rotavirus
infections. The irony of this patent is the statement that this component would be
used to treat immune compromised individuals, particularly hiv-infected
patients. The patent filing dates are past the 1985 CDC policy that hiv positive
women should not breastfeed. Of interest is the following statement in this
patent, "Human milk fat globules (HMFG) are obtained from the cream fractions of
milk, and have been utilized to prepare polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies
for use in diagnosis of breast cancer." Do people know that a human milk
component is used in breast cancer diagnosis? What is the economic value of HMFG
as a diagnostic?
There is one more patent and application that I am not sure about. But I
suspect that it is possible that donor milk from the Mothers' Milk Bank at
Christiana Hospital was used. The patent and the application are about the use
human milk component called leptin. This is about the use of the real component
not something genetically engineered. The patent is called "Administration of
leptin" (patent # 6475984) with inventors Susan Kirwin and Vicky L. Funanage
of Wimington Delaware and filed in 1999. The Nemours Foundation is the
assignee to this patent. Nemours Foundation is affliated with the Mayo Clinic,
Thomas Jefferson University, University of Delaware, Christiana Care Health
System, Baptist Medical Center, Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children (here in sunny
Florida), Virtua Health, and Sacred Heart Hospital. The patent states they got
their milk from the "Research Department." So they may or may not have
gotten their donor milk from the Christiana Milk Bank which is part of HMBANA.
Agennix, is a company that manufactures, markets recombinant human
lactoferrin, and has some 60 or 70 patents. It is deeply entangled with Baylor College
of Medicine. I believe the president of the university is one of the
scientific advisors to this company. A year or so ago, the Mothers' Milk Bank at
Austin sent donor milk to a researcher at Baylor College of Medicine for a study
on toxins in human milk. Baylor College of Medicine is what I call Human
Lactoferrin Patenting Central. The Pharm Woman patent is assigned to Baylor
College of Medicine (1987). The Pharm Woman patent is the "mother" of all this
patenting. It is what the European Greens protested against and defeated the
European patent on using human milk for the creation of pharmaceutical drugs.
There were 3 Pharm woman patents. The US Pharm Woman patent was accepted and
there were no protests in the USA.(there is one in Australia and I don't know
whether it was accepted or rejected). I believe sending any donor milk to any
researcher at Baylor College of Medicine is risky. Risky in that there is an
enormous economic investment in products that will compete against breastfeeding.
If the breastfeeding community continues to address this issue as one
malicious individual (myself) out to destroy human milk banks, then they are on a
misguided course of action. I certainly accept some criticism, I am no saint or
perfect person. But I am not the problem. There is a tactic used by
organizations called scapegoating to divert attention from the problems of the
organizations. I refuse to accept that position.
Valerie W. McClain, breastfeeding advocate
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