U.S. Government Says Human and Other Genes Should Not Be Eligible for Patents

The new position could have a huge impact on medicine and on the biotechnology industry. The new position was declared in a friend-of-the-court brief filed by the Department of Justice in a case involving two human genes linked to breast and ovarian cancer. “We acknowledge that this conclusion is contrary to the longstanding practice of the Patent and Trademark Office, as well as the practice of the National Institutes of Health and other government agencies that have in the past sought and obtained patents for isolated genomic DNA,” the brief said.
Read article in the New York Times (USA)
Comment from Dr Rath Foundation: The U.S. federal government should be applauded for taking this important position against the multi-trillion dollar “business with disease.” The human genome − the blueprint of life and the biological basis of our existence − belongs to all mankind. Efforts to own this genetic code with the goal to re-build, sell and manipulate the human body or parts of it for corporate gain, should therefore be prohibited.