C M Y K E6
HEALTH 03-02-10 DM EE E6 CMYK
E6
KLMNO TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 2010
URBAN JUNGLE
The changing natural world at our doorsteps.
Aborted maple flower buds
The snow also provides high-contrast evidence that some dog
Snow — with sprinkles
Crape
owners fail to clean up after their pets. Feces that are not
For weeks, the now-crusty surface of a
myrtle
disposed of attract and provide a nutritional bonanza for rats,
persistent snowpack has collected
fruit
which feed on the waste.
anything dropping from trees —
or from animals.
A sampling of
snow-surface
Asiatic
bittersweet
detritus:
Black
berry
Beech leaf
locust
pod
English ivy
Tulip poplar
fruits and
Golden
seed
leaf
raintree
fruit
Darker objects absorb more
sunlight, which turns into
radiant heat that melts a
recessed pocket for the object.
SOURCE: D.C. Department of Health PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY PATTERSON CLARK/THE WASHINGTON POST
clarkp@washpost.com
Heart surgery brings out the art in college students
Patent rights leave some
genes off-limits to research
on chemotherapy and surgeries.” “It’s like saying I can’t look at
Lawsuit targets
All Myriad tests are done at its my own blood,” said Ceriani.
lab in Salt Lake City. Doctors Patent attorney and molecular
breast cancer test around the country send pa- biologist Kevin Noonan said
controlled by one firm
tients’ blood samples there and “sound and fury” has obscured
get results from Myriad: posi- the legal realities of the case.
tive, negative or inconclusive. “Saying the consequence of
by Kari Lydersen Doctors or genetic counselors these patents is that women may
then discuss the meaning of the not be able to obtain the infor-
After receiving a diagnosis of findings and different options mation is like saying I can’t call
aggressive breast cancer at age with their patients. Medicaid someone in New York because I
43, Lisbeth Ceriani wanted to covers the test in Virginia and don’t want to pay to use a tele-
find out whether she had the Maryland but not in the District. phone,” he said. “Free speech
BRCA gene mutation, which doesn’t mean something should
makes women much more likely
‘A product of nature’?
be free, it just means the govern-
to get breast and ovarian cancer. Patents cover thousands of ment can’t suppress it.”
If she tested positive for the mu- human genes, about 20 percent Mark Stoler, president of the
tation, she decided, she would of the human genome, according American Society for Clinical Pa-
have her ovaries removed pre- to the ACLU. While it is illegal to thology, a plaintiff in the suit, is
emptively. patent products of nature, laws concerned that Myriad’s monop-
PHOTOS BY TRACY A. WOODWARD/THE WASHINGTON POST
But Massachusetts, where of nature or abstract ideas, fed- oly on the test prevents patients
Ceriani lives, is one of 24 states eral courts have decided that a from seeking a second opinion
where Medicaid does not cover DNA sequence that has been ex- that might be available if other
A
spiring to imitate
the $3,120 test, which is offered tracted and isolated does not companies offered the same or
Thomas Eakins? It
only by the Utah biotech com- qualify as a product of nature. similar tests.
certainly looks that
pany Myriad Genetics. Coordi- Critics say these patents have Marsh said Myriad has li-
way. Last week, a group of
nator of a Boston au pair pro- a severe chilling effect on re- censed several universities to do
students from Swarthmore
gram where she does not get search because the patent-hold- tests that can confirm a positive
College in Pennsylvania
health insurance or earn enough er could claim ownership of any finding.
evoked the image of the
to purchase it on her own, Cer- “No test is perfect. No matter
19th-century Philadelphia
iani said she could not afford the how many layers of quality con-
artist when they went to
test. She is one of the plaintiffs in
Patents cover
trol you put on something, there
observe — and then
a lawsuit claiming that Myriad’s are still mistakes made,” said
document in their own
thousands of
exclusive right to conduct tests Stoler. “Our first question is, is it
drawings — surgery as it
for the mutation is unconstitu- good lab practice to have a mo-
was taking place.
human genes,
tional.
according to the
nopoly? The second question is,
The plaintiffs’ attorneys, from should genes be patented? Most
Perched above the
the American Civil Liberties of us agree the answer is no,
operating rooms at the
Union and a nonprofit called the
ACLU.
genes should not be patented,
Inova Heart and Vascular
Public Patent Foundation, hope and there should not be monop-
Institute in Falls Church,
the case will redefine how patent commercial applications that re- olies on lab tests.”
the students were able to
law is applied to genetic testing sult. But Marsh points out that In December Ceriani tested
watch through a glass
and research. They say that Myr- numerous papers have been positive for the BRCA mutation
dome as cardiac surgeon
iad’s patents on the isolated published on BRCA genes since after Myriad donated free test
Edward Lefrak and his
BRCA sequences impede re- Myriad obtained the patent, and kits to a local nonprofit. Marsh
team performed an aortic
search and women’s access to the company is also continuing said the donation was driven
valve replacement.
their own genetic information to research the genes and refine largely by Ceriani’s advocacy.
Monitors allowed the
through testing. its tests. Chicago filmmaker Joanna
students— including,
Richard Marsh, Myriad’s exec- DNA sequences related to Alz- Rudnick tested positive in 2001
above, Emily Leach, left,
utive vice president and general heimer’s, spinal muscular atro- for the gene mutation, and later
and Alicia DeWitt — to see
counsel, counters that the test phy and other diseases are got a second opinion in Canada
parts of the procedure in
might never have been devel- among those covered by patents. while she was there producing a
greater detail.
oped and become widely avail- ACLU staff attorney Chris Han- documentary about BRCA.
able if it weren’t for the financial sen said many were obtained by While Canadian doctors often
The group of 20 included
incentives offered by a patent. research institutions committed send samples to Myriad for test-
engineering and biology
And he said the patents will ex- to keeping the genetic informa- ing, some Canadian universities
students, many of whom
pire in 2014 and 2015, at which tion in the public domain and and researchers do a different
don’t draw regularly. The
point any company will be able away from companies that type of test that can confirm mu-
goal, according to assistant
to offer the test. might seek exclusive use of it. He tations of the BRCA gene.
art professor Logan Grider,
“It is an expensive test; affor- said that the parties behind the A second opinion is “an option
was not simply to
dability is a concern,” said litigation chose to sue over the most women don’t have,” Rud-
reproduce the operation in
Marsh. “But the whole patent BRCA patents because Myriad nick said, since insurance typ-
art but to focus the
system is to incentivize people to has enforced them and because ically wouldn’t cover a second
students’ attention on a
go out and develop a product breast and ovarian cancer affect test. Her documentary argues
“visually complicated”
and make it more accessible. so many Americans. that Myriad’s patents impede de-
procedure such as surgery.
We’ve literally spent hundreds of “Taking a gene out of the body velopment of a more accurate
thousands if not millions to con- doesn’t take it from being a and cheaper test.
on
washingtonpost.com vince physicians and insurance product of nature to a creation “If they had a non-exclusive
For additional photos, go to
companies that if you can diag- of man,” said Hansen. “People patent, they could still be testing
washingtonpost.com/health.
nose someone with a predisposi- have a common-sense reaction and making money, they’d just
tion [to cancer,] you’ll save more that it shouldn’t be right for have competition,” Rudnick
money by paying for the $3,000 some company to own a piece of said. “That’s American.”
test than hundreds of thousands my body.”
health-science@washpost.com
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