WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, GALLO & SPERO LLP
Personalized medicine just got a little harder to patent. Today (March 20), the United States Supreme Court decided that two diagnostic methods developed by Prometheus Laboratories to calibrate drug dosages did not meet the standards for patent eligibility, reported Reuters.
Synthetic thiopurines are administered to treat certain auto-immune diseases, such as Crohn’s disease, but patients must be monitored to optimize dosing while minimizing side effects. Prometheus’s methods rely on monitoring the levels of various metabolites in red blood cells. In 2004, the Mayo Clinic devised its own diagnostic tests based on different levels of these metabolites. Prometheus Laboratories sued in District Court, alleging patent infringement, and Mayo claimed in return that Prometheus’s tests relied on unpatentable natural phenomena. The Federal District Court upheld Prometheus’s patents, ...
