Today starts another journey for much needed reform of corporate greed over the general welfare of the republic. The mantra of testing companies and Big Pharma has been that patents help them recoup their research and development costs, but at the cost of making such advancements available to all citizens who need preventative medicine but cannot afford the sticker price.
This judgement by Judge Sweet is pretty sweet, so let's take a gander at what could reshape biotech industry.
US Judge Strikes Down Patent On Cancer Genes
by The Associated Press
http://www.npr.org/...
In a ruling with potentially far-reaching implications for the patenting of human genes, a judge on Monday struck down a company's patents on two genes linked to an increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer.
Ah, as usual, this is subpar reporting by the Associated Press. This case was not about a patent on a gene, but a patent on the techniques used to analyze a gene.
But the process to identify a gene has been around awhile, your DNA sequencing, your radiolabel probes and so forth. And Myriad Genetics definitely cannot claim the gene itself in their patent, because Diamond v. Diehr explicitly says you cannot patent a rendered or purified natural phenomena.
So while the AP erroneously reports this was about a gene patent, it was actually about Myriad Genetics beating everyone to the patent window with the process to identify a particular gene.
Which one, you ask?
Testing for mutations in the so-called BRCA genes has been around for just over a decade. Women with a faulty gene have a three to seven times greater risk of developing breast cancer and a higher risk of ovarian cancer.
Myriad Genetics Inc. sells the only BRCA gene test, which one expert says now costs nearly $4,000.
"There are some women without insurance coverage who are not able to pay that," and have not been able to be tested, said Dr. Kelly Marcom, a breast oncologist who runs Duke University's Hereditary Cancer Clinic.
You bet your sweet burro some women couldn't pay that, and lord knows insurance companies would deny it, which brings up some interesting points:
- The general welfare of the republic will benefit because access to this test is an integral part of preventive care in the realm of breast cancer.
- This is just a test using known techniques, so this is like someone patenting a pool testing kit then not allowing any other company to manufacture a similar kit even though the basic chemistry involved has been around for generations.
- It reaffirms that naturally occurring human genes cannot be patented under the table by claiming techniques already common in industry
If I was betting man, I bet the cost of the test falls to 3 figures when this court case is finally settled. Since this is America and corporations never lose, Myriad Genetics will surely appeal this to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan.
Because they didn't get in this business to save women from the horrors of late term breast cancer, they got it in for the profit margins.
General welfare of the republic that made their business possible be damned.