To date, 17,240 have done so.Īlso, the 12-year exclusive license to own Iceland's genetic information and ability to sell any discovery the research yields strikes some detractors as a monopoly. In addition, citizens are assumed to agree to participate unless they opt out. The database will contain the genetic information of practically all Icelanders. Researchers believe that creating a massive genetic database could lead to the discovery of disease patterns and new drugs.īut deCODE's database has been widely criticized by several groups including the World Medical Association and the Iceland Psychiatric Human Rights group.Ī major concern is privacy. The company filed a $200 million IPO on March 8 and are in a quiet period.ĭeCODE targeted the 275,000 Icelanders because they are so homogenous, meaning that genetic anomalies will stand out much more clearly than in a melting pot like the United States. Johannesson wrote a column in the Icelandic newspaper Morgunbladid asking if the parties received payments, and also received no answer.ĭeCODE would not comment on the situation. "It's a time for change in Iceland's political life," said Vladimir Johannesson, a small businessman in Iceland who also has run for office. The only thing that is certain is that deCODE made quite an effective lobby work, directed towards parliamentarians not to mention the media." "Those are only speculations and you have to decide yourself if you believe it or not. "Nothing decisive can be said about the rumors," said Hjörleifur Guttormssson, a former member of the Icelandic parliament for 21 years who voted against the database bill. It was discussed in parliament on March 6 and strongly opposed by Prime Minister David Oddsson. Parliament member Jóhanna Sigurardóttir drafted a bill that would require parties to account for their donations. "It's clear that the leaders of these parties were very evasive when asked if they received any payments," said Bogi Andersen, assistant professor of medicine at the University of California at San Diego, who is from Iceland. Many critics pointed out that deCODE did not mention donations given before or after the spring 1999 campaign. It is the biggest party and leads the government's large two-party majority," said Pétur Hauksson, chairman of Mannvernd, which is suing the state of Iceland on the grounds that the database act is unconstitutional. "The Independence party did not request donations, they said, and therefore did not receive any. However, the company denied giving to those parties running parliament now - the Conservatives and Progressives - because they didn't ask. He received no response.ĭeCODE admitted in a recent statement that it gave money to all of the political parties that asked for donations during the spring 1999 political campaign. Hafstein wrote a column in Dagur asking both ruling political parties if they had accepted a payment from deCODE. Speculation abounds that the government accepted $250,000 –- a huge sum by Icelandic standards –- from deCODE, while the parliament was working to pass the bill. "Because deCODE got such a very good deal with the government, people suspected it had greased the rails for the legislation to pass this quickly," said Stefan Jon Hafstein, a columnist for Dagur, an Icelandic newspaper.
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