Original Geneticist who discovered BRCA1 Gene – Delighted with #SCOTUS ruling
Written by Dr Nick on June 17, 2013
The Geneticist Mary-Claire King who discovered the BRCA1 gene, says
she is delighted by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that makes it illegal to patent it
and rightly so
Dan Munro reviews the decision in this piece on breaking the Myriad Monopoly
and he rightly pointed out that Mark Skolnick said in an interview in 2007
Q: “You [Myriad] said this test will one day be 100’s of dollars. Why is it still $3,000? Why is it increasing?” Joanna Rudnick – film documentarianA: “That’s a good question and I think there’s a point at which we have to start looking at decreasing the cost of the test.” Founder and Former Myriad Genetics CEO – Mark Skolnick
Hmmm – now 6 years on and instead the price increases?
I don’t think this will stifle innovation and what is often forgotten is much of the discovery and innovation was publicly funded – the original DNA project was publicly funded. This is a win for science
