Cancer is estimated to be the leading cause of the burden of disease in Australia. In 2012, breast cancer was the leading cancer cause of the burden of disease in women in Australia. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women both in the developed and less developed world.
These are all scary figures. But one can be comforted to know that everything is being done to bring these figures down, to save more lives; to provide not only cures, but also methods of prevention. You would be wrong.
The federal court has ruled that a company may patent genetic material that has been extracted from the human body. This has serious repercussions for the future of medical research in Australia.
Gene patents are of great concern to the medical research community and to the medical profession.
The patenting of this material places limits on genetic testing, genetic research and the development of treatments and cures for genetically associated disease. In short: Gene patents suppress innovation.
So it is of great concern to learn that US-based Myriad Genetics and Genetic Technologies have patented a gene known as BRCA1. Mutated versions of this gene, which women can be born with, have been associated with an increased risk of hereditary breast and ovarian cancers. Yes you readcorrectly. Two bio-tech companies were granted the patent to a hereditary gene associated with an increased risk of cancer.
Gene patents are also a matter of enormous public interest and concern to the medical community to ordinary Australians, who will be shocked to find that their genes are owned by an unknown corporation.
While the case was before the court, the companies chose not to enforce their rights over the BRCA1 patent. We ask that they continue to do so.
Now we understand economics, and that Myriad Genetics and Genetic Technologies need to make money. But we also understand human rights. Health should not be a money game, and cancer not a source of income. Cancer is a human rights issue. Patenting something that needs to be researched limits the potential of discovery to a few minds. For a human rights issue, every available mind should be utilized, every idea looked at and every discovery praised. Not swept under the carpet due to a fear of a lawsuit.
We would remind Myriad Genetics and Genetic Technologies. Companies, which control access to the gene for testing and research, would be subject to public outrage if they tried to obstruct its wider use. We would also implore them to continue to not restrict access to BRCA1 for screening purposes. Lives are in your hands. Do the right thing.
