Row over breast cancer test for Ashkenazi Jews

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Gene patent fight over breast cancer test
25 June 2005
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A ROW has erupted in Europe over a possible patent on a breast cancer test that might lead to some of the most vulnerable women being denied the test, while others get it for free.

The test is for a specific mutation in the BRCA2 gene that predisposes women to breast cancer and is relatively common in Ashkenazi Jews. Although a previous patent on this and other BRCA2 mutations was overturned in February 2004 by the European Patent Office, the company that owned it - Myriad Genetics of Salt Lake City, Utah - has re-applied for worldwide monopoly rights "for diagnosing a predisposition to breast cancer in Ashkenazi-Jewish women". It is the first time race has become an issue in the already controversial field of gene patents.

Geneticists have objected because, while the test could be offered free of charge to most European women, doctors wanting to offer it to Ashkenazi Jews would need a licence from Myriad. They might choose not to offer the test to the group that needs it most, says the European Society for Human Genetics in its opposition to the patent.

"If the patent is granted I could test free of charge for the mutation provided the woman doesn't tell me she is an Ashkenazi Jew," says geneticist Gert Matthijs of the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL) in Belgium, who opposes the patent. The issue will be decided on 29 June at a special hearing at the European Patent Office in Munich.

New Scientist contacted Myriad for comment but had not received a response by the time of going to press.

From issue 2505 of New Scientist magazine, 25 June 2005, page 7

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UPDATE: The patent's been granted

Patent singles out Ashkenazi Jewish women
09 July 2005

WOMEN in Europe who happen to be of Ashkenazi Jewish descent may want to keep that fact from their doctor when being tested for breast cancer genes.

Myriad Genetics of Salt Lake City won a European patent on 1 July covering a specific mutation in the BRCA2 gene, which increases the risk of breast cancer. The mutation is found in 1 in 100 women of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. The ruling means that doctors offering tests for BRCA2 mutations are now legally obliged to ask women if they are Ashkenazi Jews. If they say they are, doctors must pay a licence fee to Myriad. No fee is due if a patient says she does not know.

“Something is fundamentally wrong if an ethnic group can be singled out by patenting”"We believe there is something fundamentally wrong if one ethnic group can be singled out by patenting," says Gert Matthijs of the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL) in Belgium, a member of the European Society of Human Genetics. "It means that someone is exploring the limits of what is acceptable legally and ethically."

But the society is delighted that two years of legal battles have so weakened Myriad's major European patents on BRCA1 and BRCA2 that no licence fees have to be paid for breast cancer tests in Europe except those involving Ashkenazi Jewish women.

From issue 2507 of New Scientist magazine, 09 July 2005, page 7