(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
Cancer survivors and advocates are devastated after a Federal Court ruling that private companies have the right to control human genes.
They say potential cures for some cancers could be undermined and research stifled.
Alyshia Gates reports.
(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full report)
It has been a four year fight.
Now, hopes have been dashed for cancer advocates and their legal team.
Rebecca Gilsenan, from the law firm Maurice Blackburn, was deflated outside of the Federal Court.
"We're extremely disappointed with the decision of the full federal court to uphold the validity of gene patents. Gene patents are of great concern to the medical research and medical profession."
The test case looked at whether BRCA1, a genetic marker for breast and ovarian cancer, should be in the public domain or in the hands of corporations.
Lawyers argued body parts should not be commercialised, that genetic material is a product of nature, even when isolated from the body.
Sally Crossing, from the advocate group Cancer Voices Australia, argues the same point.
"The fact that you can put a patent on a piece of human body and own it strikes us as being offensive and counter intuitive"
Queensland's Yvonne D'Arcy became the face of crusade.
Although she didn't carry the gene, she had hormonal breast cancer twice.
She said she wanted to campaign for carriers.
"I don't think it's right, I don't think morally and ethically it's right. It's something that is in every living being."
Rebecca Gilsenan, from Maurice Blackburn, says research is now at risk.
"Gene patents stifle innovation and the important innovation that should be happening is the entirety of the scientific and medical research community having access to genes."
Sally Crossing says that is a particular concern.
"That's what worries us because targeted therapies need tests and processes to develop new drugs for people with cancer to be more effective than the ones we have now."
It is a win for the patent owner, Myriad, and the Australian licence owner for the test, Genetic Technologies.
It comes after courts in the United States ruled last year that isolating the genes didn't constitute an invention.
Ms Gilsenan says the Australian decision needs to be reviewed.
"We need to go away now and understand why the full Federal Court of Australia has reached a different conclusion."
Myriad has released a statement saying it is satisfied with the decision.
It says strong patent protection is essential to the future of innovation in the life sciences.
It costs around three thousand dollars for patient testing for the BRCA1 mutation.
Previously, a geneticist could do it for about 500 dollars.
Ms Darcy and her lawyers plan to fight the decision and are considering appealing to the High Court of Australia, as well as lobbying the Federal Government to change the law.
"Because there's a loophole in the patent law this is where they're getting through and a private company already owns the prostate cancer gene and there's many others, around 20 thousand of them, owned by private companies."
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