http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=0...


"Doctor's groups, including the AMA and too many others to list,
are supporting the Mayo Clinic in the case Prometheus v. Mayo:
http://thepriorart.typepad.com/the_prior...


The Mayo Clinic alleges that the patents in question merely recite a
natural phenomenon:


The simple fact that the level of metabolites
of a drug in a person's body can tell you how
a patient is responding to that drug.


The particular metabolites in this case are those of thiopurine drugs
and the tests are covered by Prometheus Lab's 6,355,623 and 6,680,302
patents [1,2].


But these aren't the only 'observational' patents in medicine —
they're part of a trend where patents are sought to cover any test using
the fact that gene XYZ is an indicator for some disease, or that certain
chemicals in a blood sample indicate something about a patient's
condition. There are even allegations that certain labs have gone so far
as to send blood samples to a university lab, order testing for patented
indicators, then sue that university for infringement. Naturally,
Prometheus Labs sees this whole story differently, arguing that the Mayo
Clinic will profit from treating patients with knowledge patented by
them. They have their own supporters, too, such as the American
Intellectual Property Law Association."




[1] Method of treating IBD/Crohn's disease and related conditions
wherein drug
http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=e...

[2] Methods of optimizing drug therapeutic efficacy for treatment
of immune
http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=y...