Comments on: Screening & Discussion: “In the Family” http://yaleisp.org/2010/02/a2k4screening/ Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:32:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Lea Shaver http://yaleisp.org/2010/02/a2k4screening/comment-page-1/#comment-971 Lea Shaver Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:58:10 +0000 http://yaleisp.org/?p=803#comment-971 This was a really well-done movie, even apart from the A2K connection! One thing I found really interesting was that the Myriad representative defended the legitimacy of their patent on the gene in a counter-intuitive way. He pointed not to the incentives and investment in the research that allowed Myriad to win the race to pinpoint the exact gene. But to the investment that they had made in "educating the market." Being able to charge a high amount for the test gave them a commercial interest in spending the money to advertise to doctors and patients to do the test. This, not the research, was the key ingredient he suggested gene patents were necessary to preserve. But the high cost is clearly counterproductive from the standpoint of giving women good information. Many can't afford the test, and some who can, get inconclusive results, because there aren't enough other people with their type of mutation that have been tested yet... a particular issue for African-American patients. So are gene patents the right way to raise money for patient and doctor education? This was a really well-done movie, even apart from the A2K connection! One thing I found really interesting was that the Myriad representative defended the legitimacy of their patent on the gene in a counter-intuitive way.

He pointed not to the incentives and investment in the research that allowed Myriad to win the race to pinpoint the exact gene. But to the investment that they had made in “educating the market.” Being able to charge a high amount for the test gave them a commercial interest in spending the money to advertise to doctors and patients to do the test. This, not the research, was the key ingredient he suggested gene patents were necessary to preserve.

But the high cost is clearly counterproductive from the standpoint of giving women good information. Many can’t afford the test, and some who can, get inconclusive results, because there aren’t enough other people with their type of mutation that have been tested yet… a particular issue for African-American patients.

So are gene patents the right way to raise money for patient and doctor education?

]]> By: Access to Knowledge and Human Rights Conference : Information Society Project at Yale Law School http://yaleisp.org/2010/02/a2k4screening/comment-page-1/#comment-957 Access to Knowledge and Human Rights Conference : Information Society Project at Yale Law School Wed, 10 Feb 2010 22:27:43 +0000 http://yaleisp.org/?p=803#comment-957 [...] Film Screening and Panel Discussion (Room [...] [...] Film Screening and Panel Discussion (Room [...]

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