Myriad Genetics acquires patent on another breast cancer-linked gene

Myriad Genetics, a leading US molecular diagnostic company, has been granted exclusive rights to an analysis of the RAD51C gene. Mutations of the gene have been associated with an increased risk for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer and the company now hopes to develop a commercial test for RAD51C....[Read More]

UK Supreme Court upholds gene patent

In what appears to be the end of a long running legal saga, a ruling by the UK's Supreme Court has found in favour of a patent for a gene and the protein sequence it encodes. Lawyers say that the ruling will make it easier to patent discoveries which do not have a clear demonstrated application, a result that will largely please the private bioscience industry but may alarm many who believe that human genes should not be patentable....[Read More]

US judge overturns gene patents

A US judge has invalidated a genetic testing company's patents on two breast cancer genes...[Read More]

Genetic information doesn't improve breast cancer risk prediction, large study finds

Breast cancer risk prediction does not improve significantly when genetic information is included in the risk prediction model, a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found....[Read More]

Book Review: The Usborne Introduction to Genes and DNA

The media is filled with coverage of genes and genetics, ranging from new clinical developments to genetic advancements. But few biology textbooks/booklets offer a way of simplifying the topic to pupils. This is one of the advantages of this introductory book...[Read More]

'Over-the counter' genetic tests trigger ethical concerns

The Council of Europe has issued a protocol setting out measures that would strictly limit the use of mail order and over-the-counter genetic tests, in a bid to circumvent potential ethical dilemmas. The guidelines stipulate that diagnostic, predictive, 'healthy carrier' and pharmacogenetic tests should only be employed...[Read More]

New Zealand genetic testing law review supports saviour siblings

By MacKenna Roberts: A report by the Human Genome Research Project at Otago University commissioned by the New Zealand Law Foundation examines the issue of genetic testing and recommends that the laws, which currently allow testing in very limited situations, should be relaxed to allow its use for wider medical...[Read More]

Gene patenting distorts the medical research agenda

It is in patenting gene sequences that the divide between research to address health needs and research for profit is most clear. The extent of US patents granted on human genes is revealed in the 10 October edition of the journal Science. According to Jensen and Murray of the Massachusetts...[Read More]

One fifth of all human genes now patented

Nearly a fifth of all known human genes have been patented in the US, the majority by private companies, a new study reveals. The research, published in the journal Science, matched patented genes to their locations in the human genome. It showed that almost 4382 of the 23,688 genes present...[Read More]

Slimmed down breast cancer gene patent upheld

The latest challenge to a patent held by US firm Myriad Genetics on a test for hereditary breast cancer has failed. The European patent Office (EPO) ruled on 29 June that European patent EP 785216, which relates to the BRCA2 gene, is to be maintained in its amended form. The...[Read More]

Discrimination fears over breast cancer test

Some Jewish women could face discrimination over access to tests for hereditary breast cancer, the Scientist magazine reports. Geneticists at a meeting held last week said that changes made to a patent relating to the BRCA2 gene, owned by US firm Myriad Genetics, could mean that women of Ashkenazi Jewish...[Read More]

Patient group awarded gene patent

A patient support group has been awarded a landmark patent, on the gene involved in the disorder pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE). The US Patent and Trademark Office has recognised the head of PXE International, Sharon Terry, as one of five co-inventors on a patent issued on 24 August. Terry, who has...[Read More]

Ethics council criticises gene patents

Patents on gene sequences are granted all too readily, according to a discussion paper published by the UK's Nuffield Council on Bioethics. Instead, the paper suggests, patents involving DNA sequences should be 'the exception rather than the rule' and the legal tests that applications must be novel, inventive and useful...[Read More]

MEPs back patent protest

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have added their support to others who have opposed the granting of two patents in Europe to Myriad Genetics, a biotechnology firm based in Salt Lake City, US. The French ministries of health and research and the Paris Institut Curie, one of the world's...[Read More]

News from around the world

By cloning a litter of pigs, a Texan university has become the world's first academic institution to have successfully cloned three different species of mammal. The College of Veterinary Medicine at the Texas A&M University had previously cloned cattle and goats. The Paris Institut Curie, one of the world's...[Read More]

One hundred issues old and counting

This issue of BioNews is the hundredth we've published. And on Thursday, it will also be our second birthday. When, in early 1999, Progress Educational Trust came up with the idea of starting BioNews, we never imagined it would become quite so popular. Our readership stretches from research scientists to...[Read More]

New US gene patenting guidelines

The US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has issued new guidelines on the patenting of genes, reports last week's Nature. Although the guidelines accept that genes can be patented, they are intended to prevent the patenting of gene sequences with no immediately apparent use. From now on, applications for gene...[Read More]

No charge for breast cancer gene test

The UK government is finalising a deal that will allow NHS doctors to carry out tests on two patented genes involved in breast cancer, without paying royalty fees to British licence-holders Rosgen. Although the details of the deal have yet to be agreed, Rosgens say that in the interim, NHS...[Read More]

Gene patenting in the news

This week's BioNews reports on a landmark legal dispute over a gene patent between scientists and a group of families affected by Canavan disease. The case, in which the families are suing the Miami Children's Hospital for patenting a genetic test for Canavan disease, is the first of its kind...[Read More]

Families sue over gene patent

US families affected by Canavan disease, a severe genetic condition, are suing the institute that identified the gene involved, reports last week's Science. The Miami Children's Hospital (MCH) obtained a patent on the gene in 1997, and began licensing a genetic test for the illness the following year. But the...[Read More]