FLICKR, SHAURY NASH
The Federal Court of Australia has upheld an earlier decision in favor of Myriad Genetics, a US-based genetic testing company that holds a patent on naturally occurring mutations in the BRCA1 gene, which can predict a woman’s risk for certain types of breast or ovarian cancer. On September 5, the court denied an appeal by the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, the patient advocacy group Cancer Voices Australia and Yvonne D’Arcy, a breast cancer survivor.
In its original February 2013 ruling, the court argued that the process of isolating a human gene creates an “artificial state of affairs” that may be protected by a patent. In last week’s decision, a different set of judges maintained that the actual isolated DNA is materially distinct from the DNA ...
