[Pharm-policy] Law suit over Canavan disease gene patents

[James Love]

http://www.bioresearchonline.com/content/news/article.asp?DocID={D729C405-BF95-11D4-8C7F-009027DE0829}


    Gene patenting run amok?
    11/21/2000  

Lawsuit alleges patent hinders research

In the first case of its kind, parents of children with a genetic
disorder are suing researchers who developed and patented a test for the
disease. The case involves Canavan disease, a rare disorder that
afflicts children of Ashkenazi Jewish families. Using material donated
by the families of Canavan patients, Reuben Matalon and co-workers at
Miami Children’s Hospital developed a genetic test for the disease. The
suit, filed pro bono by Chicago-Kent College of Law in behalf of the
families, alleges that the  researchers are trying to profit from the
children’s illness, and are hindering access to the test, as well as
future research in this area.

   [snip]


-- 
James Love  <love@cptech.org>  http://www.cptech.org
Consumer Project on Technology, P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 200036
voice 1.202.387.8030 fax 1.202.234.5176