"Matthew Albright's thoroughly researched and accessible book reveals the lie behind the claim that patents on genes will be good for our health. Profits Pending documents how patents on life stifle scientific research even as they fill the drug company coffers. Essential."

"Fascinating and written in language for the ordinary person, Matthew Albright exposes corporate appropriation of our biological heritage. A well-documented exposé of the secret corporate effort to privatize our planet's biology and what we can do about it."

Somebody owns your genes. Through the U.S. patent system, corporations and universities have claimed property rights not just on the rice and corn at your dinner table but also on you. Moving beyond patenting and "owning" diseases like staph, tuberculosis, and SARS, one American corporation owns the genetic heritage of the entire population of Iceland. A university has property rights on all human clones-even though human cloning is still being debated in Congress. Another company claims to have invented "junk" DNA. Through its patents, it stakes a claim to the research on 95% of human DNA.

Profits Pending examines the devastating affects of these patents on life, from the blatant theft of cultural resources to slowing down research into deadly diseases. Once used to reward the inventiveness of American scientists and entrepreneurs, the patent system is now being abused to control scientific exploration into human biology and to create monopolies over the world's food sources. Instead of promoting scientific discoveries, patents on life now destroy crucial elements of the scientific method such as the free exchange of ideas between researchers. Profits Pending demonstrates that patents on life may ultimately destroy the biotechnology industry and ultimately hinder the innovation the American economy depends on.