Quote:WHAT on earth were the Innovic judges thinking when they gave the Social and Community Benefit prize to Fermiscan at Friday's Next Big Thing awards?
The listed Fermiscan has used every legal tool at its disposal to break the spirit of the woman who invented the breast cancer detection technology which won last week's award.
That woman is respected scientist Professor Veronica James, who found molecular changes could be detected in hair samples of women with breast cancer, after those samples are subjected to synchrotron X-rays.
In 2004, Prof James exchanged rights to her discovery with Fermiscan for a few thousand dollars -- the cost of the patent.
In 2006, her house was raided without warning and documents removed at Fermiscan's request.
Earlier this year, Prof James was sued by Fermiscan, which claimed that recent and different cancer detection discoveries she had made also belonged to the company.
In May, Justice Robert McDougall threw Fermiscan's claims out of the NSW Supreme Court after a five-day trial.
This is what a shaken Prof James told Brave New Word in a report published by the Herald Sun on June 4: "Every time I hear a car pull up outside, I worry its going to be another subpoena. I just couldn't go on if I had to go to court one more time. Please don't ask me any questions."
Weeks later, Fermiscan decided to take Prof James to court one more time anyway, by appealing against Justice McDougall's decision.
Shame on you, Innovic. You call yourselves champions of innovation, but giving this award to Fermiscan rewards a company that treated one of science's most eminent and gentle women appallingly and bought the rights to a discovery for a song.
Innovic chief Joss Evans told Brave New World she was aware there were IP issues involved, but she considered them irrelevant as they did not alter the social and community benefit of the Fermiscan innovation.
She then terminated the interview before we could ask if it was relevant that Fermiscan's action had stripped Prof James of any social and community benefit she should be enjoying as a result of her discovery.
You see, Innovic, Prof James had wanted her technique to be commercialised speedily in order to save as many women's lives as possible, and that is why she agreed to give it to Fermiscan, believing the company had a better chance of taking the technology to market than she had on her own.
She did not want big rewards for her discovery, just the knowledge that she could help alleviate suffering for millions of women and their families around the world.
That is the sort of endeavour that should be reaping social and community benefit awards.
Fermiscan owns the technology, but with everything that has transpired, it does not deserve the award and Innovic should take it back. http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,,25753738-5000117,00.html