US Supreme Court Asked to Reconsider Gene Patents
By Ruth Saunders,
BioNews
| 10. 01. 2012
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has asked the US Supreme Court to reconsider its decision to uphold the patent held by Myriad Genetics on two human genes associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancers.
The lawsuit was filed by ACLU and the Public Patent Foundation on behalf of medical associations including the Association for Molecular Pathology, scientists, patients and women's health groups. It is the latest part of an ongoing battle over the validity of the patents held by Myriad Genetics. The lawsuit claims the patents are illegal and will both hamper scientific research and limit accessibility to medical care.
The ruling over the gene patents has been going back and forth since March 2010, when a district court declared the patents invalid, but was later overturned by the Court of Appeal for the Federal Circuit (CAFC). The decision was passed on to the Supreme Court, which asked the CAFC to reassess their judgement taking into consideration the Supreme Court's recent ruling against a similar patent.
The genes in question, BRCA1 and BRCA2, can be used to detect the...
Related Articles
By Carly Mallenbaum, Axios [cites Emily Galpern] | 03.29.2026
More Americans are turning to surrogacy to build their families, as the practice becomes more common and more publicly discussed.
Why it matters: As surrogacy becomes more visible and accessible, ethical, legal and cultural tensions become harder to ignore...
By Carly Mallenbaum, Axios [cites Surrogacy360] | 03.29.2026
Without a federal law, surrogacy in the U.S. is governed by a patchwork of state regulations/
Why it matters: Confusing, varied local rules can determine everything from whether agreements are legally binding to who is recognized as a parent at...
Cathy Tie seems to be good at starting businesses but not so dedicated to maintaining them. CGS, like many others, first heard of her thanks to Caiwei Chen and Antonio Regalado in MIT Technology Review, May 2025, as the partner (perhaps bride) of the notorious Chinese scientist He Jiankui, described in the headline as “China’s Frankenstein.” He prefers “Chinese Darwin.” She ran his Twitter account for a while, contributing such gems as:
Get in luddite, we’re going gene editing...
By Laura DeFrancesco, Nature Biotechnology | 03.17.2026
The first gene editors designed to fix genetic lesions in mutation-agnostic ways are poised to enter the clinic. Tessera Therapeutics and Alltrna, two Flagship Pioneering-funded companies, are gearing up to test novel genetic medicines in humans. Tessera received regulatory clearance...
