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Tue Apr 6 22:25:15 2010
Gene Patents
A surprising verdict that could change everything.

No longer intellectual property?
Image courtesy of 84user (wiki)

What with the passage of the healthcare bill, the recent strategic armaments treaty, and earthquakes, an important story was mostly buried this week. The story, which is causing an uproar among biologists, is that the ACLU has just won a lawsuit which invalidates several gene patents. This article has a great overview of how the case unfolded.

This is big news. Why?

On the one hand, many people are worried that by blocking patents of human genes, companies and institutes will be unwilling to investigate genetically-targeted (or inspired) drugs. For instance, the Northwestern University report quoted above includes a quote from one lawyer:

You won't have disclosure to move onto the next step in biology

that is, because patents won't be filed, companies will keep genetic sequences private.

However, that same article quotes other practicing scientists as saying

There could be an increase in the amount of research done to attempt to find cures for disease.

and also notes independently that

Myriad Genetics could find other labs rivaling it and might be forced to lower the cost for the BRCA test.

[Myriad Genetics was the defendant in the lawsuit, and their BRCA breast cancer test relied in part on patents on the human BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.]

I'm with the scientists on this one. Allowing patents of standard human gene sequences is dumb and contrary to the spirit of patents. It was a mistake to have allowed it in the first place, and the ACLU was right to challenge it.

Is this the end of patents for biotech? No. Even the scientists who supported the lawsuit noted that

The company spent significant time and money figuring out the structure of the gene and how to test for it, and thus are able to charge what they want to for the test.

In short, companies can patent anything they invent that is original, but can't patent Mother Nature.

It is early days still! The result will almost certainly be appealed. But I am hoping that higher courts will uphold the verdict. If so, I think we'll see even more genetic information publicly available, which should speed cures and lower costs for everyone.

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