Supreme Court rules that genes may not be patented

But they also ruled that cDNA sequences may be patented. The argument is something like this: DNA is found in nature, hence not patentable. But cDNA, or DNA stripped of its introns, is not found in nature, hence potentially patentable. See Adam Liptak’s article in The New York Times.

The outcome means (or seems to mean) that Myriad Genetics will no longer have a monopoly on testing for the breast-cancer genes, BRCA-1 and -2. Liptak suggests that competition will now drive the cost of such tests down from the present price of around $3000. Myriad’s stock nevertheless had gone up at the time of Liptak’s report.