Appeal against human gene decision

Updated: 19:03, Monday March 4, 2013

A cancer survivor is appealing a landmark Federal Court judgment which allows private companies to patent isolated human genes.

Lawyers for Yvonne D’Arcy on Monday lodged an appeal in the Federal Court against Justice John Nicholas’s decision last month allowing two biotech companies to retain their patent over mutations to an isolated gene known as BRCA1.

People who have these mutations on BRCA1 have been found to have an increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer.

The ruling prompted medical experts to call for a change in the law amid fears cancer research could be stymied and treatment options could become limited.

Ms D’Arcy and Cancer Voices Australia originally took the case against Myriad Genetics Inc, the owner of the patent, and Melbourne-based Genetic Technologies Ltd, which holds the exclusive licence to conduct the tests in Australia.

They argued the patent was invalid, as patents protected inventions and not discoveries.

It was the first time an Australian court had to consider whether isolated human genes could be patented and Justice Nicholas found that isolation of the gene from the human body was the product of human intervention.

Lawyer Rebecca Gilsenan of Maurice Blackburn believes there is a good basis to appeal that decision.

‘We intend to continue the challenge to the monopoly created by the patent held by Myriad and to refute the point that isolated human genes are a ‘manner of manufacture’ and an ‘artificial state of affairs’,’ Ms Gilsenan said in a statement.

Cancer Voices is not a party to the appeal, which is expected to be heard later this year.

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http://www.news.ezonearticle.com/2013/03/04/appeal-against-human-gene-decision/