Poland

Since July 2023, the issue of patents on living organisms has been at the heart of debates in the European Union. These debates were sparked by the European Commission’s proposal to stop assessing the risks associated with GMOs, to stop labelling them as such, and to put an end to their detection and identification. In December 2024, a conference allowed several stakeholders of the debate to express their opinion.

In January 2025, Poland, president of the Council of Europe, put a proposal on the table of EU member states to “solve” the patent problem that had arisen in the debate on deregulating GMOs obtained by new techniques. Complex and of uncertain effectiveness, the Polish proposal has plunged everyone into doubt. Discussions on this text may therefore not be concluded before Denmark, whose government supports total deregulation of GMOs, takes over the presidency of the European Union.

After genetic sequences and DNA, here comes RNA, the new flagship molecule in biotechnology that is supposed to solve agricultural and health problems. Companies in this field are flourishing. Among them is GreenLight Biosciences, a company that was on the verge of bankruptcy when it was bought by the investment fund Fall Line Capital.