BREAKING: Human DNA can’t be patented, Supreme Court rules

By Joe Carlson
Posted: June 13, 2013 - 11:00 am ET


In a decision that lays ground rules for the oncoming wave of personalized medicine, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that companies cannot patent naturally occurring segments of human DNA, the building blocks of life.

However in a legal victory to the Salt Lake City-based Myriad Genetics (PDF), the high court unanimously held that companies can patent synthetically created strands of composite DNA, or cDNA, which are used in research and drug development.


...organizations that claimed the company had no right to exercise zealous protection of its patent on two strands of DNA that expose women to higher risk of breast and ovarian cancers, known as BRCA1 and BRCA2. The company claimed its patent gave it the right to exclusively isolate the cancer-causing genes and create BRCA cDNA.

... the high court ruled Thursday morning that the company cannot hold a valid patent on the right to isolate a naturally occurring human gene, even if it used groundbreaking scientific techniques to discover it. However, the cDNA is a product of laboratory science involving the creation of a new string of molecules that can be used exclusively by the company...

For about 15 years, Myriad has been selling an expensive test based on the genes that determines whether stricken women have variants of the disease susceptible to drugs that target those mutations. The company had argued that patent protection is necessary to conduct research ...


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