In the news

Researchers at the Curie Institute in Paris, supported by the French government, have announced that they intend to challenge the patent held by the company Myriad Genetics on all genetic testing for mutations in the BRCA1 breast/ovarian cancer gene [see Nature (2001) 413, 95-96]. Myriad was granted a European patent on the gene sequence, and all diagnostic genetic tests based on it, in January of this year. At present the company insists that all samples are sent to its US laboratories for testing, at a cost of $2400 per sample. The French researchers say they intend to challenge Myriad's patent on two grounds: that the gene sequence was not novel in that its discovery depended on work done in other laboratories, and that Myriad's test, which is based on comparing a patient's gene sequence with Myriad's reference sequence for the gene, fails to detect all mutations, in particular some large deletions. The French government has also said that it may introduce legislation to force Myriad to license BRCA1 testing in France. Last year the UK Department of Health reached a preliminary agreement on BRCA1 testing with the UK company Rosgen, to which Myriad had licensed testing rights, but these negotiations stalled when Rosgen went into voluntary receivership.