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saint_monkey60 Minutes had a story last night about the ACLU's attempts to overturn Myriad Genetic's patent on the genes BRCA1 and 2. (When these genes are found (usually in a very specific sub-set of ethnic jews,) they are 82% likely to be an indicator of future breast cancer, and a near 50% indicator of ovarian cancer. The operation of these genes is a clear tie to cancer, and should have been available for broad research by genetecists and oncologists, but they haven't been, because Myriad has "patented" these genes, and aggressively pursues anyone who attempts to work with them.)
Long (long, long) time readers of this blog may remember that I wrote about this (an my anger in the absolute and utter hubris of patenting someone's genetic heritage, and then making them pay for access to the content of their own genome,) in 2003: http://saint-monkey.livejournal.com/92152.html
Although Myriad will appeal, the lower courts have found in favor of the ACLU, and declared Myriad's patent to be invalid.
Of course, there are still those that disagree, but to these people, I want to ask: "Just how much could we have learned about breast cancer, and perhaps cancer in general by now, if this patent had been impossible to obtain, or invalidated back in 2003? Myriad has done what I argued they would do, they've restricted access to this gene (other than their own tests) for seven years, stalling progress in favor of profit.
Long (long, long) time readers of this blog may remember that I wrote about this (an my anger in the absolute and utter hubris of patenting someone's genetic heritage, and then making them pay for access to the content of their own genome,) in 2003: http://saint-monkey.livejournal.com/92152.html
Although Myriad will appeal, the lower courts have found in favor of the ACLU, and declared Myriad's patent to be invalid.
Of course, there are still those that disagree, but to these people, I want to ask: "Just how much could we have learned about breast cancer, and perhaps cancer in general by now, if this patent had been impossible to obtain, or invalidated back in 2003? Myriad has done what I argued they would do, they've restricted access to this gene (other than their own tests) for seven years, stalling progress in favor of profit.
