“IT IS a victory for ethics and rights over monopolistic abuses.” So claim the health institutions in France that have succeeded in overturning a European patent on a breast cancer gene held by a US company, Myriad Genetics.
Myriad had been trying to establish a worldwide monopoly on testing for the mutations in two genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2, that increase the risk of breast cancer. It has been insisting all samples be sent to its labs in Salt Lake City for testing (New Scientist, 13 July 2002, p 29). This has angered patient groups and doctors, who claim its…
