Amsterdam hospital wants its scientist added to Plasterk's cancer treatment patent

A university researcher from Amsterdam UMC must be added as the co-inventor to Ronald Plasterk’s patent for cancer therapies. The academic hospital came to this conclusion after investigating the patent issue, which cost Plasterk the Prime Minister position and about which NRC has reported several times.

The hospital has determined that the “inventorship does not belong exclusively to Ronald Plasterk.” It concerns multiple patent applications and an already granted patent. According to the hospital, university researcher Jan Koster is a co-inventor. Plasterk worked with him when he did research at the Amsterdam UMC a few years ago.

“For the investigation, all parties involved and external specialists were consulted, and the email correspondence between Plasterk and Koster was reviewed,” the Amsterdam UMC said.

The patent applications brought in millions for Plasterk through his company Frame Therapeutics, which he sold to the German CureVac in 2022. The Amsterdam UMC was sidelined in this. The hospital has now approached CureVac as the owner of the (applied for) patents to rectify the inventorship.

Plasterk previously denied reports of this by NRC. In response to the latest article, Plasterk told the newspaper that Amsterdam UMC told him for five years that he was rightly the sole inventor. According to Plasterk, Koster had an executive role and not an inventor role. If the hospital now sees this differently, it should turn to CureVac, the former Cabinet formation leader and former PvdA Minister said.

After the accusation that Plasterk had enriched himself with public research money, he withdrew as a candidate for Prime Minister earlier this year. PVV leader Geert Wilders then picked Dick Schoof to be Prime Minister.