Supreme Court says companies cannot patent human genes

The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that human genes cannot be patented by companies that extract them from nature without actually creating anything.

Its decision throws out patents awarded to Myriad Genetics Inc., a Utah firm that isolated the location and sequence of genes that are key to recognizing high risks of breast and ovarian cancer.

The unanimous opinion is likely to have broad implications for medical research and could make tests for mutations in the relevant genes more affordable.

Myriad had filed claims against entities that conducted testing for mutations of the genes.

Actress Angela Jolie recently called attention to the issue by having a preventive double mastectomy because she has the mutation of the gene that makes her highly vulnerable to cancer.

The high court held that companies should not be able to patent the segments of DNA because they are a “product of nature.” A synthetic replication of the genes, known as BRCA1 and BRCA2, could be patented, however, the opinion said.

Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the court, delved deeply into the history of human genome research and the “double helix” researchers James Watson and Francis Crick first discovered in 1953. The opinion is fraught with reference to “eons,” “messenger RNA” and “nucleotides.”

Its plain-English rendering of patent law, however, concluded that Myriad “did not create anything.”

“To be sure, it found an important and useful gene, but separating that gene from its surrounding genetic material is not an act of invention,” Justice Thomas wrote.