Gene patents: perspectives from the clinical laboratory

Patents involving human genes, human genetic material, and genotype-phenotype correlations are a reality and are increasingly having a negative effect on the clinical molecular diagnostic laboratory and on patient care. Specifically, gene patents and exclusive licensing of diagnostic testing has a detrimental effect on the quality of laboratory testing, the cost of testing, turnaround time, coordination of care, patient access to testing and the ability to confirm testing at a separate laboratory. In this article, gene patents are discussed from the perspective of a medical director of a molecular diagnostics laboratory, and the effect of such patents on clinical laboratory practice is examined.