NGOs Challenge Syngenta GMO Pepper Patent

Swiss agrochemicals producer Syngenta is at loggerheads with a group of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) over a patent for a genetically modified pepper variety.

This week, the 32-NGO coalition of growers, farmers and environmental advocates from 26 countries filed a challenge to Syngenta's patent issued in May 2013 by the European patent office in Munich, Germany and valid in several EU companies.

The company's critics say they doubt that Syngenta's insect-resistant pepper is a real modification and that the company may have simply crossbred a Jamaican wild pepper with a domestic variety. They contend that the Swiss product is only "a cheap copy" of a natural product and charge that Syngenta is privatizing natural resources.

The patent office said it has received challenges to patents for broccoli and tomatoes issued to large agrochemical groups and will review these before tackling the Syngenta issue.

In some EU countries, such as Germany, patents cannot be issued for animals and plants bred conventionally. Syngenta is offering its patented product to other companies under license.