Rimmer, Matthew --- "An exorbitant monopoly: the High Court of Australia, Myriad Genetics, and gene patents" [2017] ELECD 806; in Matthews, Duncan; Zech, Herbert (eds), "Research Handbook on Intellectual Property and the Life Sciences" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 56

Book Title: Research Handbook on Intellectual Property and the Life Sciences

Editor(s): Matthews, Duncan; Zech, Herbert

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781783479443

Section: Chapter 5

Section Title: An exorbitant monopoly: the High Court of Australia, Myriad Genetics, and gene patents

Author(s): Rimmer, Matthew

Number of pages: 48

Abstract/Description:

In 2015, the High Court of Australia handed down a landmark ruling in respect of Myriad Genetics Inc. and its patents in respect of genetic testing for breast cancer and ovarian cancer.This brought to a conclusion a long-running legal and political controversy over gene patents in Australia. The dispute – a ‘dog-fight’ according to its protagonist, Yvonne D’Arcy – has a long genesis. In June 2010, Cancer Voices Australia and Yvonne D’Arcy launched an action in the Federal Court of Australia against the validity of a BRCA1 patent– held by Myriad Genetics Inc., the Centre de Recherche du Chul, the Cancer Institute of Japan and Genetic Technologies Limited.Yvonne D’Arcy – a Brisbane woman who has had treatment for breast cancer – maintained: ‘I believe that what they are doing is morally and ethically corrupt and that big companies should not control any parts of the human body’.She observed: ‘For my daughter, I’ve her have mammograms, etc, because of me but I would still like her to be able to have the test to see if the mutation gene is in there from me’.