Company appeals genetic patent ruling

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Company appeals genetic patent ruling SALT LAKE CITY (UPI) -- A Salt Lake City company says it is appealing a U.S. District Court ruling invalidating its patents on naturally occurring genes. In March, U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet in New York ruled that parts of seven patents held by Myriad Genetics that concern two human genes related to breast and ovarian cancer are invalid because the genes are products of nature and thus not eligible for protection under U.S. patent laws, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Sunday. Myriad argues the ruling in the suit brought by 20 researchers, organizations and cancer victims "imperils the entire biotechnology industry -- molecular diagnostics, therapeutic drugs, agricultural applications, animal husbandry, etc." Those bringing the lawsuit say the patents have stifled research and limited the number of tests and treatments available for women at risk of breast and ovarian cancer. In 1994 and 1995 Myriad were granted patents for the so-called BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes (BRCA stands for breast cancer), then developed diagnostic tests that identify mutations that make women more susceptible to breast and ovarian cancer and aggressively marketed its products. Myriad says the material and methods that were patented are substantially different than those found in the body. Sweet ruled the existence of an isolated form of DNA -- or genes -- like that claimed by Myriad does not alter the fundamental quality of the material as it exists in the body nor the genetic information it encodes. Copyright 2010 by United Press International
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'Second-hand' danger in radiation therapy? NEW YORK (UPI) -- Thyroid cancer patients given radiation can be dangerous to people around them for a week, doctors say, raising questions of where they should spend that time. In 1997, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission stopped requiring that the patients be quarantined in a hospital. Now, patients can be released right after their treatment -- swallowing radioactive iodine -- when they are at their most radioactive, The New York Times reported Sunday. Scientists say a second-hand dose could exceed an average American's annual level from all natural sources, and can be three or four times the safe level recommended for a pregnant woman. With most health insurance plans not covering an extended hospital stay, most patients check into a hotel. "There weren't many choices, really," said Ann Maddox, 72, who traveled 500 miles from Fayetteville, N.C., to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore for her treatment. Staying with her pregnant daughter wouldn't be safe for the fetus, she said, and flying home would expose fellow airplane passengers, so Maddox's husband checked them into a hotel. "I pretty much went in the back door," she said. Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., accuses the NRC of turning a blind eye to the problem. "My investigation has led me to conclude that the levels of unintentional radiation received by members of the public who have been exposed to patients that have received 'drive through' radiation treatments may well exceed international safe levels established for pregnant women and children," Markey said in a statement. Many radiation experts doubt radioactive thyroid patients represent a public health problem. "We're talking about really small doses," said Dr. Henry D. Royal, the associate director of nuclear medicine at Washington University in St. Louis. Copyright 2010 by United Press International
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Space tourism ticket prices could drop HOUSTON (UPI) -- Two space tourism companies say the price for a trip into space could drop from millions of dollars down to hundreds of thousands by late 2011. A brief trip into space featuring a few minutes of weightlessness and a view of the Earth 62 miles below could be within reach of the merely well-off and not just the mega-rich, the Houston Chronicle reported Monday. "Now, the sky is no longer the limit," said Richard Branson, whose Virgin Group is one the companies planning to offer commercial suborbital missions late next year. "We will begin the process of pushing beyond to the final frontier of space itself." Space Adventures, the Vienna, Va.-based company that brokered the flights of seven space tourists to the International Space Station between 2001 and 2009, also plans to offer suborbital tourist flights. Both companies are expected to offer tickets at between $100,000 and $200,000, still a steep price for a flight lasting a few minutes. "There's no magic wand out there to wave and reduce the cost of space access by a factor of 10 or 100," said Jeff Foust, a space industry analyst for the Futron Corp. The big hope in space tourism, he said, is that once suborbital flights grow in demand ticket prices will drop. "It's not going to be something where it's a $99 deal with Southwest," Foust said. "Relative to commercial air travel it will still be expensive. But people spend tens of thousands of dollars to climb Everest, visit Antarctica or go on African safaris. This price will attract adventure tourists." Copyright 2010 by United Press International
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Haiti said at risk of another earthquake MIAMI (UPI) -- Haiti's January earthquake may not have relieved stresses on the main earthquake fault there, leaving it "locked and loaded" for a major quake, researchers say. Studies suggest a previously unmapped "blind" fault may have triggered the catastrophe but did little to ease centuries of seismic strain building up along the island's major Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault zone. That could put the island at risk for repeat temblors along the Enriquillo fault, one researcher said. "Even if this earthquake did not occur along the entire fault, it's certainly an indication that stress has built up in the area," Andrew Freed, a Purdue University geophysicist, told The Miami Herald. "It's locked and loaded. My concern is that we are in the beginning of new cycles of earthquakes." Large quakes can follow within decades and at either end of the fault zone, another researcher says. "There is another shoe waiting to drop at one or both ends of the rupture zone," Timothy Dixon, a professor of geophysics at the University of Miami, said. "We can't say very much about when that other shoe will drop. It could be 100 years from now or it could be next month," he said. Copyright 2010 by United Press International
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