deCode's Delight
This article was originally published in Start Up
Executive Summary
A revised version of a parliamentary bill originally put forth by the Icelandic government in April 1998 was finally approved in mid-December. This bill gives deCode Genetics permission to gather existing and current medical information about the country's population in a computerized database. Icelandic scientists must be given full access to the data, the bill stipulates, but deCode will be the sole commercial beneficiary of its database for 12 years.
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