Prometheus Struck Down by the Gods…
21/03/12 13:49 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Submitted by S. Pelech - Kinexus on Wed, 03/21/2012 - 13:49.
The US Supreme Court's ruling on the patentability of observations of natural phenomena like biomarkers seems pretty sensible. Mutation and modifications of DNA sequences, levels of expression of RNA's and proteins, post-translational modifications, and the appearance of metabolites can all serve as potentially useful biomarkers for disease diagnosis and prognosis, but their recognition come from acts of discovery as opposed to invention. With such an abundance of biomarkers, there could otherwise be a strong temptation to file a lot of ultimately useless patents that would really only benefit patent law firms. This would translate into less money for research and development with more expenses associated with filing and defending patents.
Most diseases arise from a diversity of molecular perturbations, some inherited and many arising from environmental influences. Specific diagnostic tests will have to encompass the monitoring of a wide range of biomarkers to ensure accuracy, and this would be extremely difficult to achieve if many different academic institutions and companies had individual claims on complementary biomarkers. Ultimately, the patenting of biomarkers would have actually severely handicapped the adoption of personalized medicine.
Link to the original blog post.
The US Supreme Court's ruling on the patentability of observations of natural phenomena like biomarkers seems pretty sensible. Mutation and modifications of DNA sequences, levels of expression of RNA's and proteins, post-translational modifications, and the appearance of metabolites can all serve as potentially useful biomarkers for disease diagnosis and prognosis, but their recognition come from acts of discovery as opposed to invention. With such an abundance of biomarkers, there could otherwise be a strong temptation to file a lot of ultimately useless patents that would really only benefit patent law firms. This would translate into less money for research and development with more expenses associated with filing and defending patents.
Most diseases arise from a diversity of molecular perturbations, some inherited and many arising from environmental influences. Specific diagnostic tests will have to encompass the monitoring of a wide range of biomarkers to ensure accuracy, and this would be extremely difficult to achieve if many different academic institutions and companies had individual claims on complementary biomarkers. Ultimately, the patenting of biomarkers would have actually severely handicapped the adoption of personalized medicine.
Link to the original blog post.