The double-helix derailed: the story of the BRCA patent.

摘要

The March 29, 2010, landmark decision1 of US federal-court judge Robert W Sweet to invalidate many of Myriad Genetics' patent claims on BRCA1 and BRCA2 has exposed a controversy that has been brewing in cancer genetics for over a decade. Namely, two genes for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome (BRCA1, BRCA2) discovered via an international collaboration of researchers-many using government funding-were patented by Myriad Genetics in the mid-1990s. Granting a patent on a gene was not novel but the scope of the patents,5 how Myriad has enforced these patents, and the subsequent impact of their monopoly on clinical care and research is unprecedented.