The Supreme Court's ruling that human genes cannot be patented has been met with excitement from doctors over the implications for patient health. Other experts, however, questioned whether there will be a widespread impact.

The high court's ruling threw out some patents previously held by Myriad Genetics Inc., a Salt Lake City-based company that had patented a genetic test for the BRCA gene that's associated with increased risks for breast and ovarian cancers.

Play Video

"We hold that a naturally occurring DNA segment is a product of nature and not patent eligible merely because it has been isolated," said Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote the court's unanimous decision.

The court, however, also ruled that synthetic DNA -- called cDNA -- could be patented by a company.

The full decision of Association for Molecular Pathology et al. v. Myriad Genetics,Inc., et. al can be found on the Supreme Court's website.

The lawsuit against the genetics company included plaintiffs from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) and other medical professional associations, on behalf of researchers, patients and women's health groups.

Play Video

It stemmed from Myriad's specific patents for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. Mutations of these genes raise risk for breast and ovarian cancer. Not every woman who has a mutated BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene will develop cancer, however they are at much greater risk.

About 12 percent of women will develop breast cancer in their lives, according to the National Cancer Institute, but about 60 percent of women with a harmful BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation will develop the disease. For ovarian cancer, lifetime risk for most women is 1.4 percent, but for women who inherited the faulty BRCA genes, the risk estimate climbs to 15 to 40 percent.

Continue reading here:
Supreme Court's gene patent ruling could boost patient care

Comments are closed.