Are Gene Patents Blocking Personalized Medicine?

Race to patent the BRCA1/2 genes won by a private company with one day to spare - the information was published widely the next day by another group. The BRCA patents have allowed a private company to hold a complete monopoly on BRCA testing in the U.S.

In a few weeks, ACLU lawyers will ask Supreme Court judges to invalidate patents on human genes. Their case centers on a technical argument: Products of nature are not patentable by law. Lawyers representing Myriad Genetics will argue the opposite by saying that researchers alter DNA by sequencing it.

Read more here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/body/gene-patents-and-personalized-medicine/