{"id":3591,"date":"2002-10-22T11:07:10","date_gmt":"2002-10-22T16:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=3591"},"modified":"2002-10-22T11:07:10","modified_gmt":"2002-10-22T16:07:10","slug":"all_your_genes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/10\/22\/all_your_genes.html","title":{"rendered":"All your genes are belong to us"},"content":{"rendered":"

British Columbia’s Cancer Agency is no longer running a relatively low-cost, accurate cancer test on women. Why? Because an American genetics company has patented <\/a> the two genes that the test looks for, which are a signal for some types of hereditary breast cancer, and is demanding higher royalties for anything that tests for those genes.<\/p>\n

Dr. Simon Sutcliffe, who runs the B.C. Cancer Agency, said 200 of the tests are now being routed annually to Ontario, which is ignoring the patent.
\nThe agency used to do its own tests until the B.C. government recently ordered it to stop after legal threats by Myriad.
\nMyriad now wants $3,500 US for the blood test, three times what it used to cost the province.<\/p>\n

That’s just swell, guys.<\/p>\n

More technical info can be found here<\/a>, where Myriad’s SEC filing notes that “BRCA-1 and BRCA-2 appear to be responsible for approximately 84% of the early onset hereditary breast cancer and approximately 90% of hereditary ovarian cancer.” That sort of cancer accounts for about 5-10% of all breast cancer cases. The patent is for the description of the mutated genes; any sort of test that looks for these genes, based on that information, falls under the patent, and anyone trying to sell such a test (or <\/i>a therapy that uses the same info) must pay royalties.<\/p>\n

Certainly there is value in companies that invest in basic research being able to find a way to profit thereby — that’s the incentive for them to do so. But to patent a discovery<\/i>, versus an invention<\/i>, seems counter-intuitive (not to mention immoral). It’s within some measure of precedent — akin to a Voyage of Discovery where the first country to plant its flag on a given rock claims and keeps the territory — but it still feels wrong, as though the first person to discover something new about how oxygen molecules interact with blood could then charge royalties every time someone breathes …<\/p>\n

(via InstaPundit)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

British Columbia’s Cancer Agency is no longer running a relatively low-cost, accurate cancer test on women. Why? Because an American genetics company has patented the two genes that the test…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":37810,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/14\/sanity-from-scotus-and-intellectual-property-law-inconceivable.html","url_meta":{"origin":3591,"position":0},"title":"Sanity from SCOTUS and Intellectual Property law? Inconceivable!","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 14-Jun-13 8:21am","format":false,"excerpt":"But true!The Supreme Court ruled (unanimously!) that a company could not patent the concept of a test for a naturally occurring gene it had isolated and identified\u00a0because, basically, that's nature and basic science, not an invention.Bravo. Supreme Court: Patents Require 'An Act of Invention' UPDATE: Just hours after the Supreme\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1792,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/04\/29\/bottoms_up_for.html","url_meta":{"origin":3591,"position":1},"title":"Bottoms up — for Victory!","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 29-Apr-02 8:14pm","format":false,"excerpt":"According to Japanese researchers, drinking a beer a day can help prevent cancer. According to the data, tests showed that giving beer to a rat injected with carcinogens lowers the...","rel":"","context":"In "Science & Nature"","block_context":{"text":"Science & Nature","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/science"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":134880,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/10\/01\/environmental-contamination-cost-hurricane-harvey.html","url_meta":{"origin":3591,"position":2},"title":"The environmental contamination cost of Hurricane Harvey","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 1-Oct-17 11:21pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Testing indicates massive amounts of dioxins -- linked to birth defects and cancer -- from Superfund sites have been found downstream of the flooding. Pity that Trump has proposed cutting the Superfund budget by a third. Oh, well, it's Texas. I'm sure they all appreciate the liberty that comes from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/unnamed-26.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":40679,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/01\/09\/on-the-spread-and-evolution-of-memes.html","url_meta":{"origin":3591,"position":3},"title":"On the spread and evolution of memes","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 9-Jan-14 3:34pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Big data is fun! Especially when zombies and beer are involved!Reshared post from +Yonatan ZungerSome data scientists I know looked at how textual memes spread -- things like \u201cNo one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick. If you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132821,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/02\/10\/costs-lots-helps-not-so-much.html","url_meta":{"origin":3591,"position":4},"title":"Costs lots, helps not so much","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 10-Feb-17 2:01pm","format":false,"excerpt":"\"The bad news is, this new cancer wonder drug will cost you $171,000 for a 12 month supply. The good news is, you'll probably only need two months of it.\"And it's not like these new drugs are giving the patients a couple of months of extra fun; it sounds like\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5388,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/03\/23\/tikka_to_dye_fo.html","url_meta":{"origin":3591,"position":5},"title":"Tikka to dye for","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 23-Mar-04 8:33am","format":false,"excerpt":"Mmmmm. Chicken tikka was a staple of ours when Margie and I last went to Britain on our own. 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