A state of flux: life sciences law in Australia

In the last five years, patents directed to biologically derived inventions have been successfully challenged in the US and Australia on the basis of lack of patentable subject matter. In 2013 and 2015, the highest judicial authorities in the US and Australia respectively ruled against the patentability of isolated human genes that were claimed in a patent owned by Myriad Genetics and useful for determining susceptibility to breast and ovarian cancers.