Good news for men—potentially—but bad news for patent librarians.
Millennium Predictive Medicine of Massachusetts has filed a patent (WO 01/60860)
on “novel genes” for identifying, assessing, preventing and treating prostate
cancer. It says the genes change as a patient develops prostate cancer, and so
provide an early warning of the disease. This should improve the chances for
therapy or surgery. But the gene sequences are so long that the patent fills 14
box files—equivalent to several hundred conventional paper patents.
Technology
Back-breaking genes
By Barry Fox
13 October 2001
