ARTICLE · 06 NOVEMBER 2015

Patentability Of Genetic Material

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The patentability of genetic material has again come into the spotlight with the recent high court decision in Australia in the Myriad Genetics Inc. v D'Arcy case...

South AfricaIntellectual Property

Joanne Van Harmelen

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The patentability of genetic material has again come into the spotlight with the recent high court decision in Australia in the Myriad Genetics Inc. v D'Arcy case, where the High Court of Australia unanimously ruled that Myriad's patent claims to an isolated nucleic acid coding for a mutant or polymorphic BRCA1 polypeptide was not patentable subject matter. The detection of mutations in the BRCA1 gene is able to be used as a diagnostic marker for the risk of a woman developing breast cancer. The high court decision was similar to the present position in the United States (US), where a number of US Supreme Court decisions have found that isolated genetic material is not patentable.

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