Utah’s Myriad Genetics Ramps up Gene Patenting Dispute
By Tom Harvey,
The Salt Lake Tribune
| 12. 09. 2013
In the wake of a
case that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, Salt Lake City-based Myriad Genetics is now enveloped in a new spate of lawsuits over its gene patents, this time sparring with companies that want to erode its dominant position in testing of genes related to breast and ovarian cancer.
At stake for Myriad is whether the company can maintain the parts of its patents that the Supreme Court and a lower appeals court did not invalidate.
Myriad uses the patents for tests it now sells exclusively. The sale of those tests accounted for 75 percent of Myriad’s $613 million in revenue in the fiscal year that ended June 30.
The risks for the company are underscored by its shares, which have generally declined in price since Dec. 2 when one of its potential competitors sued and reports surfaced that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services would cut what the government pays Myriad for tests related to the genes labeled BRCA1 and BRCA2.
The company’s shares finished Nov. 29 at $29.75, then...
Related Articles
By Pete Shanks
| 02.27.2026
Last month, we published “The Shameful Legacy of Tuskegee” which focused on a proposed experiment in Guinea-Bissau. The study’s plan echoed the notorious Tuskegee disaster, withholding safe, effective vaccines against hepatitis B from some newborns while inoculating others. It was to be financed by the U.S. but performed by a controversial Danish team. That project provoked a multi-national outcry, leading to a remarkable response from the World Health Organization:
WHO has significant concerns regarding the study’s scientific...
By Jenn White, NPR | 02.26.2026
By Kiana Jackson and Shannon Stubblefield, New Disabled South | 02.09.2026
"MC0_8230" via Wikimedia Commons licensed under CC by 2.0
This report documents a deliberate assault on disabled people in the United States. Not an accident. Not a series of bureaucratic missteps. An assault that has been coordinated across agencies...
By Scott Solomon, The MIT Press Reader | 02.12.2026
Chris Mason is a man in a hurry.
“Sometimes walking from the subway to the lab takes too long, so I’ll start running,” he told me over breakfast at a bistro near his home in Brooklyn on a crisp...