EU patent snatchback won't affect GTG: Jacobson

The European Patent Office’s decision to revoke a key patent on a breast cancer test owned by Utah-based Myriad Genetics will not prevent Myriad’s Australian licensee, Genetic Technologies Ltd (ASX:GTG) providing the test in Australasia and Asia.

GTG’s Executive Chairman Dr Mervyn Jacobson, says the EPO’s May 18 decision to revoke one of Myriad’s three European patents on the BRCA1 test for susceptibility to breast cancer and ovarian cancers applies only in the European market.

The BRCA1 patent is the second Myriad patent to be revoked by the EPO. In February this year Myriad lost its sole European patent on the BRCA2 breast cancer gene test, in favour of a UK charity

Jacobsen said he understands that Myriad has so far not enforced any of its BRCA patents in Europe.

Myriad was one of the first gene-testing companies to obtain a licence to GTG’s patent on the use of non-coding DNA sequences to predict susceptibilities to genetic diseases. Under their agreement, Myriad licensed GTG to use its BRCA1 and BRCA2 breast cancer susceptibility tests in Australia, New Zealand and Asia.

Under European patent law, oppositions to a new patent must be lodged within nine months of it being issued.

The EPO issued Patent No 699754 to Myriad for the BRCA1 test on January 10, 2001. A number of European medical research institutes, led by the Institut Curie in Paris, lodged appeals after the patent was widely criticised in the European media, and in the European Parliament.