Gene patents overturned in landmark US Supreme Court decision




Image source: Jarek Tuszynski Wikimedia Commons
 

The landmark decision of the US Supreme Court in the Association for Molecular Pathology v Myriad Genetics case would appear to have overturned three decades of gene patent awards, signaling a clear shift from the Patent and Trademark Office’s past practice.

Nearly 20 years ago, Myriad obtained several pa­tents after discovering the precise location and sequence of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, mutations of which can dramatically in­crease the risk of breast and ovarian cancer. This knowledge enabled Myriad to develop medical tests for detecting muta­tions in these genes to assess a patient’s cancer risk.