Monday, September 19, 2016

NIH Opens A Can Of Worms



NIH Opens A Can Of Worms



The link is to a report of proposed changes to NIH policy on human chimera.

The report is dated August 4, 2016.

As of today's date comments have been cut off.  The report's comment section is instructive, and commended for your review.

Chimera (Human)


Over the next several months the Kosher Goldfish will be spinning out a position on this issue.  To coin a phrase :it's complicated."
KG encourages you comments of this journey.
Below are some links to articles for background purposes.

Chimera


Chimera (Human)

Saturday, June 25, 2016

NIH on Myriad

From the NIH  NHGRI (National Human Genome Research Institute website:

"On June 13th 2013, the Supreme Court published their rulingPDF file[supremecourt.gov] in the case, unanimously finding that isolated but otherwise unmodified genes were products of nature and therefore not patent eligible subject matter. However, the court did find that cDNA, synthetic DNA molecules that contain only the exons of a gene, do involve an inventive step, and thus remain patent eligible. The opinion, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, agreed with Judge Sweet's 2010 argument that the information content of a gene was as important as its chemical structure.

The court's opinion also agreed with a friend of the court brief, filed by the U.S. Department of Justice on behalf of the federal government when the case was before the Federal Circuit in 2011 (and again in a modified form when the case went before the Supreme Court in 2013). In this brief, the government took the position that isolated, but otherwise unmodified DNA should not be patent eligible, but that cDNA should be patent eligible. NIH and NHGRI are very pleased with the Supreme Court's ruling in this case, and the removal of serious potential roadblocks that could impede the widespread adoption of genomic medicine."

Three Years Ago...

In June 2013, in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics (No. 12-398), the court unanimously ruled that, "A naturally occurring DNA segment is a product of nature and not patent eligible merely because it has been isolated," invalidating Myriad's patents on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Bernie Sanders fights for reasonable drug prices, even while campaining

On March 28, 2016, Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Al Franken, Patrick Leahy, Sheldon Whitehouse and Amy Klobuchar joined the leaders of the House Democratic Task Force on Prescription Drug Pricing urging HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell and NIH Director Francis Collins to hold a meeting “to allow the public to engage in a dialogue with the Department of Health and Human Services and NIH in order to better understand its position on the use of march-in rights to address excessive prices.”


Saturday, February 20, 2016

At last, Sequenom Decided


The Sequenom case has finally been decided  by the federal appeals court.  The court struck down the patent for a Down Syndrome Test.


We first reported on the case back in January of 2013.


Our most recent update was in June of 2014.

You can read a detailed analysis of the decision on the PharmaPatents blog  here.

We predict that the case will be appealed to the US Supreme Court and the SCOTUS will deny cert.