WYETH LABORATORIES ISC. 
P. O Box 8399. Philadelphia. Pennsylvania 19101 
Wyeth 
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT 
October 4, 1976 
Dr. Donald S. Fredrickson, Director 
National Institutes of Health 
Department of Health, Education, and V/elfare 
Bethesda, Maryland 20014 
Dear Dr. Fredrickson: 
Thank you for your letter of September 7, 1976, regarding patent appli- 
cations in the area of recombinant DNA research activity. I apologize for this 
belated reply. 
I have sought the advice of our legal department, and they feel that 
option (4) as set forth on page 3 of your letter is the proper course for NIH 
to take. According to our attorneys, 
"This would continue the present NIH policy, which 
seems to be working pretty well, while giving HEW 
the opportunity to control safety precautions. We 
are vigorously opposed to any lessening of patent 
rights in this area because of the perceived great 
importance in rapid dissemination of information. 
The patenting process need not slow down disclosure. 
Further, and more importantly, i t would be rather 
anomalous for HEW to recognize the value of patents 
in bringing the fruits of research to the benefit of 
the public, and then eliminate the use of the patent 
system in a particular area because that area is of 
great importance. One could better argue that the more 
important the research area, the greater is the need 
to use the tools which will bring beneficial discoveries 
to publ i c use." 
I hope that these comments are helpful. 
Sincerely yours, 
Mark H. Levner, Ph.D. 
Senior Microbiologist 
[ 134 ] 
