Breast Cancer Action (BCA), USA

Breast Cancer Action (BCA) applauds the results of two gene-patenting decisions made in US courts. The first was on March 20th 2012, when the Supreme Court rejected attempts to patent a method of monitoring a patient's blood to determine the best drug dosage. The Supreme Court justices unanimously overturned a previous ruling by a US appeals court that had allowed the patents. They stated that companies could not patent observations about a natural phenomenon. In the second decision, on March 26th 2012, the Supreme Court overturned a 2011 Court of Appeals ruling allowing the patentings for the 'breast-cancer genes', BRCA1 and BRCA2, according to BCA. BCA has been active in campaigning on the subject of patents. For instance, the organisation testified on March  12th 2012 at a US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) hearing on gene  patenting. Of the nine bodies testifying at the hearing, only BCA argued that gene patenting harms women’s health.