Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Federal court rules human genes can be patented

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in a 2 to 1 decision that human genes can be patented because the DNA extracted from cells is not a product of nature.

The court held that Myriad Genetics can patent two human genes used to predict the risk of breast and ovarian cancer in women, overturning a previous decision by a federal district court in March 2010. But the court ruled that the method used to determine a patient's risk of cancer was not patentable.


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