Can you patent a gene?
So in June the US Supreme Court ruled that Myriad Genetics (a bio medical company) could not legally hold the patent for the BRACA I and BRACA II genes (genes that show a strong predisposition to breast and ovarian cancer). Previously the company had exclusive rights to the gene sequence so that they were the only ones allowed to test for the gene, and do research on it.
Do you think that companies and researchers should be allowed to patent genes that they find? What about genes that they synthetically make?
Link to New York Times article on the case if you want more info: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/14/us/supreme-court-rules-human-genes-may-not-be-patented.html?_r=0
Yes
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No
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Genetic patents will be harmful to gene-related research. Because patents cost a lot of money and time. So compared to large companies, small and medium-sized companies will not be able to raise many patents and large companies can demand them to pay their usage fees. In that way, the gap between large and small companies will widen, leading to the monopoly of gene-related research by certain companies. Side: No
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