The US Supreme Court has today dealt a blow to the worldwide biotech industry by declaring that inventions deriving from isolated human DNA cannot be patented. After months of speculation, it handed down its decision in the Association for Molecular Pathology, et al. v Myriad Genetics case, which sought to establish if Myriad’s patents on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which increase susceptibility to breast cancer, were valid. The Court also ruled that because it is not a naturally occurring product, complementary DNA (cDNA) remains patentable.
13 June, 2013