Supreme Court throws out patents on tests for breast and ovarian cancer famously used by Angelina Jolie in a ruling that will lower the cost of the screenings
In a decision that will have immediate benefits for breast and ovarian cancer patients, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that human DNA - including tests for cancerous mutations - cannot be patented.
The unanimous judgement is expected to lower the cost of cancer testing by throwing out patents held by Salt Lake City-based Myriad Genetics Inc. on an increasingly popular breast cancer test, which was brought into the public eye recently by actress Angelina Jolie's revelation that she had a double mastectomy because of one of the genes involved in this case.
Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote the court's decision, said that Myriad's assertion - that the DNA it isolated from the body for its proprietary breast and ovarian cancer tests were patentable - had to be dismissed because it violates patent rules. The court has said that laws of nature, natural phenomena and abstract ideas are not patentable.
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The high court's unanimous judgement will lower the cost of mutation testing, which was brought into the public eye recently by actress Angelina Jolie's revelation that she had a double mastectomy because of one of the genes involved in this case'We hold that a naturally occurring DNA segment is a product of nature and not patent eligible merely because it has been isolated,' Thomas said.
Patents are the legal protection that gives inventors the right to prevent others from making, using or selling a novel device, process or application. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has been awarding patents on human genes for almost 30 years, but opponents of Myriad Genetics Inc.'s patents on the two genes linked to increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer say such protection should not be given to something that can be found inside the human body.
The company has used its patent to come up with its BRACAnalysis test, which looks for mutations on the breast cancer predisposition gene, or BRCA. Those mutations are associated with much greater risks of breast and ovarian cancer. Women with a faulty gene have a three to seven times greater risk of developing breast cancer and also have a higher risk of ovarian cancer.
