Myriad has failed to stop Ambry offering genetic tests using the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes, but Ambry raised a substantial question about the validity of the claims of Myriad’s patents, as MaryAnne Armstrong reports.
University of Utah Research Foundation et al v Ambry Genetics Corporation
On June 13, 2013, the US Supreme Court handed down a seminal decision for the biopharma industry in Association for Molecular Pathology v Myriad Genetics, Inc, 133 S. Ct. 2107 (2013) (Myriad). In the Myriad decision the court held that naturally occurring nucleic acid sequences are not patent-eligible subject matter because they are products of nature.
In addition, claiming nucleic acids as being “isolated” will not render the nucleic acids patent-eligible. The court, however, left open the question of whether claims directed to methods of using the nucleic acids may be patentable.
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Myriad, University of Utah Research Foundation, Ambry, BRCA testing, BRCA genes