Facebook reel misinterprets patents for proposed therapies and vaccines as patents for viruses

A Facebook reel posted on 1 August 2024 shared a screenshot of a tweet asking “Why are there patents on viruses?” The screenshot listed AIDS, H1N1, Ebola, swine flu, Zika, SARS, and coronavirus as evidence of viruses being patented. It also listed a series of numbers ostensibly linked to each virus patent. The reel was viewed more than 257,000 times.

The reel contains a screenshot of a tweet from 2023, posted by an X (formerly Twitter) account using the handle @FreyjaTarte. The account, which had more than 97,000 followers at the time of writing, has posted a range of misinformation and conspiracy theories related to geoengineering, the WHO pandemic treaty, and COVID-19 vaccines, debunked here, here, and here, respectively.

Patents are typically filed by individuals or groups to protect an invention. This prevents the invention from being commercially exploited by others without the patent owner’s consent.

This common understanding of patents likely contributed to the belief that patents for viruses must mean those viruses are human-made. This is incorrect as patent laws in European countries, the U.S., Canada, and Australia allow some, but not all, products of nature to be patented.

Nevertheless, this misconception led to patents forming a cornerstone of early conspiracy theories that the virus SARS-CoV-2 was human-made, as well as the basis for the false claim that viruses in general are human-made.

In 2020, Science Feedback and other fact-checking organizations tackled these conspiracy theories, explaining that they interpreted patents incorrectly. The tweet’s question about viruses being patented, coupled with the account’s history, suggests that the tweet was alluding to similar conspiracy theories.

Like early iterations of these claims, the screenshot contains several inaccuracies. In particular, several of the patents listed aren’t for a virus. And while the list does include some patents that are for viruses, this doesn’t mean that those viruses are human-made. We explain in detail below.

“AIDS: US5676977A”

The attribution of this patent to a virus is inaccurate. Firstly, AIDS isn’t a virus, but the name of the late-stage illness caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Secondly, this patent isn’t for HIV, the causative agent of AIDS, but for a supposed method of curing AIDS using Tetrasil, shown in the patent to be tetrasilver tetroxide molecular crystal. Tetrasilver tetroxide is a chemical compound that contains silver and oxygen atoms.

The patent was filed in 1996 by rabbi and chemist Marvin Antelman. However, no evidence shows that Tetrasil is actually effective against AIDS. It should be noted that clinical evidence of a drug’s effectiveness isn’t required to file a patent, therefore the fact that a patent exists doesn’t mean a clinical intervention is effective.

In 2007, reports of patients using Tetrasil in lieu of antiretroviral therapy emerged. In response, the Zambian government warned people not to use Tetrasil to treat AIDS, stating that Tetrasil was a pesticide and that there was no evidence showing it was effective. In 2014, the World Health Organization told Spanish news outlet ABC (article in Spanish) that there’s no evidence showing Tetrasil is effective for treating AIDS.

Warnings not to use Tetrasil to treat sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, were also issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Health Canada in 2008.

Currently, no cure for AIDS exists, although effective antiretroviral therapy is available, giving HIV-positive people the same life expectancy as HIV-negative people.

“H1N1: US8835624B1”

This attribution is also inaccurate. This patent isn’t for the H1N1 influenza virus, which causes swine flu, but for an aptamer that binds specifically to the H1N1 influenza virus and ways of using the aptamer. It was filed in 2014 by researchers at the National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan. An aptamer is a short strand of nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) that can bind to proteins on cells and viruses, like antibodies. This feature makes aptamers potentially useful for discovery, diagnostic, and therapeutic purposes^[1-3].

“Ebola: US20120251502A1, CA2741523A1”

Both patents relate to a specific species of the Ebola virus called Ebola Bundibugyo (EboBun) virus, which was first isolated from a patient in Uganda in 2007[4]. The name is derived from the location where the virus was isolated. Both patents were filed in 2009. The first patent has since been abandoned.

It’s important to note that the Ebola virus was first identified in 1976 in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo and is unrelated to either patent.

This Reuters fact-check from 2020 reported that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) filed the patent to “grant rights to use the virus strain for the commercialization of diagnostics, vaccines, and antibody/antigen testing, and make them more quickly and readily available to patients, doctors and research scientists”. Another reason for patenting was to “ensure that another entity does not acquire a patent in a similar space and restrict the beneficial uses of the invention”.

“Swine flu: US8124101B2”

This patent is for a strain of swine flu virus that was genetically modified to be attenuated (weakened), meaning that the virus has lost its ability to cause disease. The patent was filed in 2005 by researchers at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The patent states that the purpose of this attenuated virus is to make vaccines. Live attenuated vaccines for other viruses, like measles, mumps, and rubella, as well as chickenpox (varicella) already exist.

“Zika: ATCC VR-84”

“ATCC VR-84” isn’t a patent, but a serial number for a strain of the Zika virus available from American Type Culture Collection (ATCC), a nonprofit organization serving as a repository of microorganisms to support biomedical research. The ATCC website states that the virus was first isolated in 1947.

“SARS: US7897744B2, US8506968B2”

The first is a patent for the genomic sequence of the virus SARS-CoV-1, which causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). It’s not a patent for the virus itself. It was filed in 2004 by the Public Health Agency of Canada.

The second is a patent for vaccine compositions targeted against SARS-CoV-1. Like the first patent, this isn’t for the virus itself. It was filed in 2009 by the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company.

SARS-CoV-1 was first identified at the end of February 2003 during an outbreak that started in China and spread to a handful of other countries. The outbreak caused by this then-novel coronavirus triggered a flurry of research activity, as well as a race to file various patents related to the virus, as reported by the Associated Press (AP) in May 2003.

AP reported that the patent for the virus itself was filed by the CDC. A CDC spokesperson told AP that this was to ensure researchers could “reasonably access” samples and prevent others from monopolizing SARS research. This is consistent with the motivation given by the CDC for filing the patent for the Ebola Bundibugyo virus, mentioned earlier. The patent for the SARS-CoV-1 virus has since expired.

“Coronavirus: US10130701B2”

The term coronavirus isn’t the name of a single virus, but can refer to any member of the coronavirus family. Common coronaviruses cause mild respiratory infections, but a few, such as SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2, can cause severe disease.

The patent cited in this instance is for an attenuated form of a coronavirus called IBV that causes avian infectious bronchitis, which can potentially be used for a vaccine. IBV affects birds and doesn’t cause disease in humans. The patent was filed in 2015 by the Pirbright Institute, a research institute in Surrey, England. Science Feedback reported in 2020 how this particular patent became the basis of the conspiracy theory that the COVID-19 pandemic was planned, explaining that the coronavirus named in the patent isn’t the same as the one that causes COVID-19.

Conclusion

As explained, several of the patents listed in the screenshot aren’t patents for viruses. While some of the patents listed are for viruses, they aren’t evidence that those viruses are human-made. While patents are typically filed for inventions, patent laws of various countries also permit certain products of nature, like viruses and bacteria, to be patented. Public health agencies like the CDC have patented viruses to ensure that samples are accessible to researchers, preventing a single party from monopolizing samples and restricting research.

REFERENCES

• 1 – Berezovsky et al. (2008) Aptamer-Facilitated Biomarker Discovery (AptaBiD). Journal of the American Chemical Society.
• 2 – Keefe et al. (2010) Aptamers as therapeutics. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery.
• 3 – Moshref et al. (2023) Aptamer-based diagnosis of various SARS-CoV2 strains isolated from clinical specimens. Heliyon.
• 4 – Towner et al. (2008) Newly Discovered Ebola Virus Associated with Hemorrhagic Fever Outbreak in Uganda. PLoS Pathogens.