Myriad Genetics was handed a win a few weeks ago when a federal appeals court ruled in the company's favor and upheld its BRCA gene patents. However, the court also struck down Myriad's methods patents. So now, both sides — Myriad and the plaintiffs represented by the ACLU — are asking the court to review its decision, though for different reasons, says Genomics Law Report's John Conley. The ACLU is asking that the case be reheard, but only on two of the issues in the original case — whether isolated genes are patentable material and whether two of the named plaintiffs had standing to bring the case, Conley says. The court declared that only one of the plaintiffs — Harry Ostrer, formerly of NYU — had standing to bring the case. Myriad is asking the court to dismiss the plaintiff's appeal on the grounds that Ostrer, having left NYU, no longer has any dispute with Myriad and its patents and thus has no standing. The ACLU is asking for the other plaintiffs who were dismissed earlier by the court — the American College of Medical Genetics and Yale geneticist Ellen Matloff — to be reinstated, which should prove especially critical to the plaintiff's case if Myriad gets its way on Ostrer, Conley says.
The Daily Scan's sister publication Pharmacogenomics Reporter has more on this story here.