WIKIMEDIA, JAREK TUSZYNSKI The United States Supreme Court yesterday (April 15) heard arguments over the controversial question of whether human genes can be patented. Although no final decision will be reached until later in the year, the tone of proceedings suggested that the justices will find that isolated DNA sequences are natural products and therefore not valid for patents, reported Nature.
The case was first heard in 2009, when the American Civil Liberties Union and the Public Patent Foundation filed a complaint again Salt Lake City-based Myriad Genetics, which holds patents on two genes—BRCA1 and BRCA2—that when mutated cause breast and other cancers, giving Myriad a monopoly on testing for such mutations. The plaintiffs argue that no company should hold the rights to a part of the human body and that sequences of DNA, as a natural product, are not eligible for patenting,
The assertion was barely challenged by the justices, according Nature. On that score, they may have been influenced by a friend-of-the-court brief from Eric Lander of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who countered a lower court’s assertion that snippets of DNA isolated from ...
