Court Rules Biotech Firm Can Patent Human Genes

Court Rules Biotech Firm Can Patent Human Genes

A divided federal appeals court on Thursday reaffirmed its ruling that isolated human genes can be patented, a victory for the biotechnology industry and a blow to critics who say the patents interfere with the practice of medicine.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in a 2-1 ruling, largely upheld the ability of Myriad Genetics Inc. MYGN +4.88% to obtain patents on two genes that can signal if a woman faces greater risk of developing breast cancer or ovarian cancer. Myriad's patents allow the company to be the exclusive U.S. commercial provider of genetic screenings for the diseases.

The article continues:

Thursday's ruling was the latest chapter in a long legal battle between Myriad and medical organizations that have argued the Salt Lake City company is trying to patent "products of nature," which can't be patented. The challengers say the gene patents interfere with medical treatment and scientific research, assertions that Myriad disputes.

The appeals court issued a similar ruling last year. But earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Federal Circuit to reconsider the Myriad case in light of a Supreme Court ruling in a different patent case that tightened rules on medical-testing patents.

On Thursday, the appeals court said the Supreme Court's recent ruling didn't require it to retreat. "Permitting patents on isolated genes does not pre-empt a law of nature," Judge Alan Lourie wrote in the Federal Circuit's lead opinion.

:shk:

This is a terrible result.

In addition to 'owning' so much of a person's behavioral information, they now can own bits and pieces of you too!

Brave new world...

See also, concerning the original case:

USA allows Human genes to be patented

It's a brave new world where even the courts bow to.. money. Because at the heart, that's what at the center of all this. the biotech industry is looking to make a killing just be simply finding, and patenting different human genes that it can target with treatment.

this isn't going very well, oh well. just imagine that one day you wont be able to medical treatment because all of the procedures are linked to genetic treatment which is owned by the industry.

a troubling portent for sure.

As with biotech firms rumored to file suit against natural farmers for selling crops where GM seeds have naturally been blown into their fields, I wonder ...

Will biotech firms file suit against anyone procreating where their patented gene is passed on to offspring?

How the hell can you patent something you didn't make? Damn this is getting past ridiculous and moved on to just plain idiotic in the case of the judges.

I guess this gives me the right to patent...a squirrel!

Yup, it's mine...all MINE!

Peace

reply to post by jude11

I guess this gives me the right to patent...a squirrel!

I call Mila Kunis.

I don't know much of anything about genes, but I don't like this news. It just seems creepy. I understand the need for medicine to make money, it attracts better quality people (in some ways) to the field, gets funding etc. but I would like to see it be less about profit and more about helping people. I feel there is a large disconnect between the two at the moment-helping people and profit that is.

It seems wrong to patent something like genes. I can understand patenting procedures involving genes, but actually patenting the genes themselves? So if I find the blue eyed gene patent it, then someday in the future when designer babies start rolling out of their self absorbed and weirdo parents do I get a cut if they choose blue eyes?

reply to post by loam


I don't know why this frightens me. Does this mean somewhere in the future, say a person illegally has a baby with patented genes. Can that baby be taken away from the Mother. I mean, could something like this really happen?

I'm sure there are all the arguments for bio medical research...but where does it end....

Des

reply to post by loam


Meh,
as Don Juan Matus once said:

"I was not around when they decided i was an idiot"

F those laws, court decisions, and any who would enforce them.