[olsen]

By Howard Lovy

U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday... three judges heard arguments for and against the ability of a private company to hold patents on genes... The attorney for Myriad Genetics... company at the center of the dispute, argued that to isolate DNA from nature is akin to fashioning a baseball bat out of a tree--something manmade and not of nature and therefore patentable.

"These are the products of molecular biologists, not of nature," said Myriad lawyer Gregory Castanias. "Isolated DNA does not exist in nature and never would exist in nature."

The stakes are high in this case, which is expected to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court ..Myriad is appealing a decision made last year by a New York judge that seven patents related to breast and ovarian cancer are invalid. Late last year, the U.S. Justice Department surprised many experts by deciding to change longstanding federal policy and side with those who believe genes should not be patented.
They are multi-billion dollar questions, ...



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