NPR's "Science Friday" to Focus on Gene Patenting

    By Donald Zuhn --

On December 11th, National Public Radio's Science Friday, which is broadcast nationwide from 2:00 - 4:00 pm Eastern time as part of NPR's Talk of the Nation programming, will focus on the issue of gene patenting.  In particular, the program will examine the Association for Molecular Pathology v. United States Patent and Trademark Office case, in which a group of patients, physicians, academic researchers, and medical societies filed suit against the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and Myriad Genetics, among others, over several patents claiming human BRCA1 and BRC2 genes and methods for detecting mutations in these genes to diagnose a predisposition to breast and ovarian cancer (see Patent Docs reports here and here).

Patent Docs author Kevin Noonan, who has written a number of articles in this space on the topic of gene patenting, will be a guest on the show.  American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Science Advisor Tania Simoncelli will also be a guest on the show.

A list of public radio stations that broadcast Science Friday can be found here.

For additional information regarding this and other related topics, please see:
• "BRCA Patent Suit to Continue in Southern District of New York," November 2, 2009
• "Empirical Research Fails to Support Gene Patenting Ban," October 22, 2009

• "Gene Patenting Debate Continues - Round Two," August 4, 2009
• "The Unwanted Consequences of Banning Gene Patenting," June 16, 2009
• "Falsehoods, Distortions and Outright Lies in the Gene Patenting Debate," June 15, 2009
• "Gene Patenting Debate Continues," June 9, 2009
• "Association for Molecular Pathology v. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office," May 17, 2009
• "Court Report: Special Edition," May 13, 2009
• "Gene Patenting and the Wisdom of Judge Lourie," April 12, 2009
• "Science Article Should Help Allay Gene Patenting Fears," December 17, 2008

Comments

[EG]

Kevin,

Good luck today and go get 'em!

[6]

Kev's gonna be more famoose than even me!

[m]

Kevin,
Just listened to the SciFri "Gene Patenting" segment.

a) At the end, you asked if you could add 1 more thing but they were out of time, could you perhaps elaborate on that 1 thing here?

b) On the issue of getting the 2nd opinion near the end of the show, it sounded that the ACLU had more updated info on that issue (obviously they're involved in the case and not an observer), and Myriad had denied the ability for someone to get a second opinion/test. I'm curious if you've found out anything else about this after the show and if its indeed true, and if so, why it would make sense for Myriad to deny a second opinion/test instead of working out a license or other?

Otherwise, I was glad to hear this topic reach NPR and get all of the misinformation clarified to the public!

[Kevin E. Noonan]

Dear m:

Thanks for listening today. While I had a great many additional things to say, to be honest I was just trying to mention the blog, which has so much more info on it.

Interestingly (and something that will be part of a future post), Myriad sent me an e-mail after the broadcast saying that the situation isn't exactly as Dan reported it. I have to see the letter before I can comment, but the short answer is that it was sent after the lawsuit was filed (which Dan admitted on the show) and Myriad didn't respond substantively (at least in part because of the lawsuit).

Thanks for the comment.