The Golden Rice Project has won the prestigious 2015 Patents for Humanity award on nutrition. Through this award, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recognizes the vision of Ingo Potrykus, Peter Beyer, and Adrian Dubock for creating the enabling conditions for smallholder farmers to benefit from Golden Rice. Potrykus and Beyer invented Golden Rice as a potential complement to the nutrition toolkit in the fight against vitamin A deficiency that afflicts about 190 million people globally.
Royalty-free access to key technologies used in Golden Rice has enabled IRRI and public institutions to continue research and development of Golden Rice on a not-for-profit basis. Through this royalty-free arrangement and by breeding Golden Rice into already popular inbred varieties, resource-poor farmers can afford and reuse the seeds when they become available.
The USPTO confers the Patents for Humanity award to patent owners working to bring life-saving technologies to the underserved people of the world. Innovations in medicine, sanitation, household energy, living standards, and nutrition aimed at improving global health and living standards for the less fortunate are eligible for the award. The USPTO will confer the award during a livestreamed ceremony from the White House at 10 am EST on April 20.
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