37.Ownership of Genes Stops Research

In this article, Shobita Parthasarathy explains how patents on genes harms research. She uses the company called Myriad as her main example. Myriad is a company that carries out gene research that has patents on the BRCA gene, an important gene that causes different diseases when mutated. Since Myriad holds patents on this gene, it becomes extremely difficult for other companies to conduct research. This severely stalls progress because only virtually only one company has access to the gene.

The author's main purpose was to denounce the company Myriad for its practices and to question companies abilities to hold patents on genes. The author claims that if this practice becomes common place, it could pose severe problems on medical and biological research later on.