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Myriad Genetics' (MYGN.O) disputed patent on the BRCA1 breast cancer gene is "surprisingly broad" and could interfere with future research, three experts said on Tuesday.
Their ongoing research indicates some other gene patents are similarly extensive, covering stretches of DNA that have nothing to do with the targeted genes, they reported in the journal Genomics.
"We find that, through this claim, the patent extends to portions of most genes in the human genome and likely to most genes in nature as well," Thomas Kepler, Colin Crossman and Robert Cook-Deegan of Duke University in North Carolina wrote.
A federal court in New York is currently hearing a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union against Myriad that seeks to have gene patents declared unconstitutional. And an advisory committee to the U.S. Health and Human Services Department is preparing recommendations on broad DNA patents.
Myriad's Mark Skolnick and 10 collaborators won a patent on the BRCA1 gene in 1998.
"Mutations in BRCA1 confer a substantial risk for breast and ovarian cancers, with a cumulative risk of incidence by age...