Biotech Company Patents Breast Cancer BRCA-1 Gene – High Court Says No

Biotech companies are trying to control life on earth, and made strides in doing so until the High Court got involved and said, “No.” Australian cancer survivor Yvonne D’Arcy has won a historic High Court “David vs. Goliath” victory against the patenting of human genes.

United States company Myriad Genetics argued it held the patent over the BRCA-1 and BRCA-2 genes because it discovered the genes. The company actually succeeded twice in pleading its case in Federal Court, but the High overturned those rulings and ruled in D’Arcy’s favor.

In the two previous Federal Court cases Myriad Genetics had successfully argued that it should have a patent because the BRCA-1 and BRCA-2 genes were isolated nucleic acids that were structurally different to naturally occurring DNA.

Yvonne D’Arcy argued that genes were naturally occurring and are something that is discovered and not invented. The High Court did not agree with the biotech’s position and found that genetic information was not something created artificially and could not be patented.

If the ruling would have went in favor of the biotech company it would have given them a monopoly on therapies designed to address the gene. It would have driven up the cost and excluded competitors from making the therapies affordable.