There are certain types of court cases that are guaranteed to get everyone's undies in a bunch...abortion, church and state, free speech cases such as flag burning come to mind. But you occasionally get these cases that has extremely far ranging consequences that gets little notice.
One such case came down today. Federal Judge Robert Sweet, in a 152 page ruling, basically said you can't patent human genes. The case involved the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes that are markers for increased risk of breast cancer and were patented by Myriad Genetics. Myriad is the sole provider of the test for these genes which a lot of women understandably want to have. It was quite a cash cow for them as they made $222 million on tests that cost $32 million to perform (that's almost a 700 percent profit margin for those keeping score at home).
Patents already cover 20% of human genes. If this decision is upheld, it has the potential to allow researchers to study these genes without fear of being shut down, speed up medical advances, and drive down the costs of various genetic therapies.
What it comes down to is that genes are not inventions. Patents are designed to protect inventions. Myriad could patent a special piece of medical equipment used to perform the test...that is an invention.
This is a good decision...medical researchers have been a little gun shy at times in doing genetic research for fear of infringing on these patents that cover naturally occurring genes! The decision will free up researchers.
One thing I am pretty sure of is that Myriad had no role in "inventing" my genes!
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4 comments:
I agree with the ruling, but it will be appealed: "...if [federal Judge Robert] Sweet's ruling is upheld, it will shake up patent law." A lot of money rides on that "if."
How ridiculous that money can thwart medical research. Good for the judge!! People are suffering and losing family and loved ones... and someone or some company feels justified because they called "dibs?"
Reminds me of Harley Davidson They tried to patent the word HOG, and patent the noise the motorcycles make! They both got tossed out.
Small clarification, Ser, Harley tried to copyright the sound a Harley made (you can't patent a sound!)
It is very difficult to copyright sounds. Only a few dozen have been successful. I know the MGM lion and the NBC chimes are two that have successfully been copyrighted (NPR had a piece on copywriting sounds when Harley dropped its claim).
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