CGS-authored
Raising the ante in a high-stakes dispute, the American Medical Association has intervened in a lawsuit against Myriad Genetics and the University of Utah over the patenting of two human genes, arguing the practice limits women's health care options.
A hearing is set to begin today in federal court in New York in the action that poses a major challenge to the U.S. practice of granting patents on human genes, which supporters argue fosters research and treatments for disorders associated with particular genes.
Defendants are the University of Utah Research Foundation, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and Myriad Genetics, a Salt Lake City-based for-profit company that offers tests to determine if women have the two genes in question that are markers for increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer.
The AMA, a powerful group that represents the nation's doctors, joins an opposition that includes March of Dimes and more than a dozen other groups and that is being led by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The plaintiffs have "all said that genes are products of nature and they've also...
A hearing is set to begin today in federal court in New York in the action that poses a major challenge to the U.S. practice of granting patents on human genes, which supporters argue fosters research and treatments for disorders associated with particular genes.
Defendants are the University of Utah Research Foundation, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and Myriad Genetics, a Salt Lake City-based for-profit company that offers tests to determine if women have the two genes in question that are markers for increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer.
The AMA, a powerful group that represents the nation's doctors, joins an opposition that includes March of Dimes and more than a dozen other groups and that is being led by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The plaintiffs have "all said that genes are products of nature and they've also...