Some practical solutions for addressing this injustice might be for investigators and institutions to share the altruism of tissue donors by agreeing to license the cell lines to other academic investigators at cost, consistent with a suggestion by Mitchell and colleagues (10). Legislation that required these kinds of sharing incentives, or even that prohibited the patenting of cell lines altogether, could relieve the pressure on investigators and academic institutions to voluntarily implement these measures. However, such legislation would inevitably lead to windfalls by commercial institutions (e.g., pharmaceutical companies) that develop products based on these cell lines. In response, the legislation could further require that 5% of the revenues earned from products developed from the cell lines be reinvested into the institutions and investigators who engage in publicly financed basic science research.
