BRCA Patent Claims Fail Again
Myriad Genetics has lost again in its efforts to claim patent protection for reading the sequence of the so-called BRCA genes associated with breast cancer. This time, a federal judge in its home state denied its request for a preliminary injunction against another company that will sequence BRCA genes for about half the price charged by Myriad. The court rejected Myriad’s motion because it quite rightly found there is doubt Myriad can prove its patents are valid. The New York Times includes a good summary article with a link to the opinion.
The opinion begins with a cogent statement:
“On June 13, 2013, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision holding that “genes
and the information they encode are not patent eligible simply because they have been isolated
from the surrounding genetic material.” Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad
Genetics Corp. (AMP), 133 S. Ct. 2107, 2120 (2013). This case arises in the aftermath of that
decision.”