Myriad v Ambry: the BRCA battle continues

31-03-2014

MaryAnne Armstrong

Myriad v Ambry: the BRCA battle continues

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.


Myriad, University of Utah Research Foundation, Ambry, BRCA testing, BRCA genes

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