SMARTPLANET
Should a company be able to patent your genes?
By Charlie Osborne | February 22, 2012, 10:56 AM PST
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Reports from Australia have indicated that lawyers representing a U.S. biotechnology company have defended the grant of a controversial patent over a common genetic mutation linked to breast cancer.
Rejecting the idea that patenting a genetic variety within the human body is the first step to privatizing individuals, the court case involving the U.S. company, Myriad Genetics, is being anxiously followed by patient groups, legal teams, healthcare professionals and public figures.
Myriad Genetics aquired a patent for the BRCA1 breast cancer genetic mutation in 1994, based on the terms that could be considered an ‘invention’:
“Removing it from the body changed it chemically, structurally and functionally.”
Myriad Genetics reportedly tested ‘thousands and thousands’ of people in order to identify the mutation within a cell genome, and the case hinged on the key point that once the isolated nucleic acid is removed from a body, then its chemical construction is different. Therefore, once removed, it can be considered an invention rather than a natural body chemical.
Not everyone agrees.
Nelda
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