Business Notes BIOTECHNOLOGY

Who owns the wonder drugs that the biotechnology industry creates through genetic engineering? This is turning out to be a thorny question. As a result, firms may have trouble getting widespread patent protection for their new products. South San Francisco-based Genentech last week lost a significant legal battle when a British high court failed to uphold a patent that the company had received in Britain on t-PA, a substance that dissolves blood clots, a cause of heart attacks. Some industry experts think the British case could be a harbinger of more patent troubles for biotech firms. In the aftermath of the London ruling, the prices of biotech stocks generally fell by 5% to 10%.