U.S Courts Invalidates Patent That Prevents Women From Identifying Breast Cancer

In an inspiring, breakthrough ruling several days ago, a New York U.S District Court judge invalidated Myriad Genetics' patents on both genes associated with breast cancer and the processes for analyzing these genes. Mutations of the BCRA1 and BCRA2 genes indicate a high risk of breast cancer and ovarian cancer; the company's reports state that a woman who tests positive for mutations of these genes has an 82% chance of developing breast cancer in her lifetime and a 44% chance of developing ovarian cancer.

These statistics are mind-blowing. An 82% chance of developing cancer? Of course women would want screening to determine if they were at risk; in France, such screening is nationally funded and encouraged. And yet, as is typical, in the U.S. women need to pay $3,000 for Myriad's test, and are prohibited from soliciting second opinions, as the patent prevents anyone other than Myriad from performing the test. Insidious.

So, backed by scientists from the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, Emory University and New York University, the ACLU, the Public Patent Foundation, and the support of a wide range of Biotech, women's rights, and medical associations, women who couldn't afford these tests or who wanted the tests verified by second opinions filed a lawsuit against the company ... and, incredibly, in a society that places far more importance on corporate earnings than women's health, they won.

This means that the U.S has finally caught up with Europe, where such tests are widely available and inexpensive and patents on them are banned. The ruling also has huge implications for the biotechnology industry in the United States, potentially invalidating other existing patents on human genes and the analytical processes related to them and posing a threat to corporations like Myriad, who use such health innovations as cash cows rather than as ways to improve women's lives.

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