Supreme Court rules human genes cannot be patented

The US Supreme Court unanimously decided on June 13, 2013that human genes cannot be patented, in a landmark decision that is seen as a major win for researchers and patients, who argued that allowing such patents impedes research and harms patients’ ability to know the disease risks that lurk in their DNA.

In the case, the Association for Molecular Pathology, a group representing professionals involved in laboratory testing, as well as scientists and patients, challenged the patents that Utah-based biotechnology company Myriad Genetics holds on breast cancer risk genes. Those genes have recently been catapulted into the national spotlight by actress Angelina Jolie’s revelation that she had her breasts removed after discovering she had a high genetic risk of developing breast cancer.

“A naturally occurring DNA segment is a product of nature and not patent eligible merely because it has been isolated,” justice Clarence Thomas wrote on behalf of the court, which struck down five of Myriad’s claims for patent protection. The court decided that synthetically-generated strands of DNA, called cDNA, however, are eligible for patent protection.

“Myriad did not create or alter either the genetic information encoded in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes or the genetic structure of the DNA,” Thomas wrote. “It found an important and useful gene, but groundbreaking, innovative, or even brilliant discovery does not by itself” make the work patent eligible.

Myriad Genetics holds patents on gene sequences related to risk of breast and ovarian cancer. Patents are awarded for inventions and new ways of making things, and Myriad argued that pinpointing the location of mutated genes that caused increased cancer risk, and isolating and sequencing those genes amounted to information that could be eligible for patent protection. The Court disagreed, and the ruling invalidated five claims the company had made in patents. But it also upheld the patent eligibility of cDNA, which is synthesized by scientists.