[Peace-discuss] Fwd: U.S. patent stops breast cancer testing

[Al Kagan]

>Date: Sat, 26 Oct 2002 13:50:22 +0400
>From: "Fiona Hunt" <Fiona.Hunt at zu.ac.ae>
>To: "<"<mai-list at moon.bcpl.gov.bc.ca>
>Subject: Fwd: U.S. patent stops breast cancer testing
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>Subscribers,
>
>I continue to be flabbergasted and outraged by such stories as this. 
>
>Fiona
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>Subject: U.S. patent stops breast cancer testing
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>
>The Province   Sunday, October 20, 2002
>
>U.S. patent stops breast cancer testing
>
>John Bermingham
>
>A key breast cancer test can no longer be done in B.C. because an American
>company has the gene patent.
>
>Utah-based Myriad Genetics Inc. has put a patent on two genes that can
>signal whether a woman may develop hereditary breast cancer.
>
>Dr. Simon Sutcliffe, who runs the B.C. Cancer Agency, said 200 of the tests
>are now being routed annually to Ontario, which is ignoring the patent.
>
>The agency used to do its own tests until the B.C. government recently
>ordered it to stop after legal threats by Myriad.
>
>Myriad now wants $3,500 US for the blood test, three times what it used to
>cost the province.
>
>And there's nothing B.C. cancer patients can do, other than paying for the
>test out-of-pocket.
>
>"The price, then, can really be held to any blackmail you wish," said
>Sutcliffe yesterday. "Whatever they set the price at. It could be a factor
>of 10 or a factor of 50."
>
>Myriad's gene patent gives it control over all research using those genes.
>
>Barbara Kaminsky, CEO of the Canadian Cancer Society in B.C., is concerned
>that private companies can own genes.
>
>"What we're seeing now is the tip of the iceberg," she said.
>
>"If this one is not dealt with, we can only, unfortunately, anticipate more
>to come."
>
>Kaminsky is critical of the B.C. government for suspending the tests here
>while other provinces are carrying on.
>
>"We're extremely disappointed," she said. "It's intolerable from the point
>of view of cancer patients."
>
>She said women may have had their breasts removed needlessly because these
>tests were not available.
>
>"Now we have the tests, and to deny women access based on cost is just so
>inappropriate," she said.
>
>About 10 per cent of cancer patients have a hereditary form of the disease.
>
>Myriad also holds monopoly gene patents for ovarian, colon and prostate
>cancers, among the 99 it currently holds.
>
>Nearly 10,000 patents relating to the human body have been filed worldwide.
>
>Health Services Minister Colin Hansen said the genetic tests were stopped
>here on legal advice.
>
>"There is maybe merit in patenting the applications of how we use gene
>sequencing, but to actually patent the sequence is something I certainly
>have great difficulty with," he said.
>
>Paying Myriad for the screenings is not going to happen, said Hansen.
>
>"We certainly want to make as broad a range of services available to the
>public. But we also have to make sure we can afford it," he said.
>
>In 1998, breast cancer survivor Susan Harris of Vancouver tested negative
>before the genes were patented.
>
>"It's an incredibly important test, because it's knowledge I can share with
>my family," said the 54-year-old researcher.
>
>She called the Myriad patent "reprehensible."
>
>"It's part of a person's body, their being. It's not a machine. This
>precedent is very, very unsettling."
>
>Email John Bermingham at: jbermingham at pacpress.southam.ca
>
>
>
>
>http://www.canada.com/vancouver/news/story.asp?id=0D0279FC-B2F4-48CA-9A46-6D
>FF52DE2173


-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu