comprehensive -WSS

comprehensive

author：comprehensive 2025-09-30 16:26:35 - browse：936

Today, if you want to know what scary family health secrets lay buried in your DNA or get screened for a lurking cancer, you have a lot of options. Laboratories have developed more than 75,000 genetic tests, with about 10 new ones entering the market daily. By the end of 2019, more than 26 million Americans had had their DNA decoded to some degree or another. Since then, that number has surely grown.

But this testing frenzy would have been inconceivable just 10 years ago. In part, that’s because the technology back then was so expensive. More importantly, until 2013, it was common practice for gene-hunting academics and companies to lock up their discoveries with DNA patents, effectively carving up the human genome into mini-monopolies. That year, the U.S. Supreme Court threw a bomb into the biotech world when it took up a landmark case that pitted cancer survivors and the American Civil Liberties Union against a diagnostics company called Myriad Genetics, which had obtained exclusive patents on the cancer-causing BRCA genes and made billions of dollars selling tests for them.

A new book called “The Genome Defense,” written by University of Utah science and technology law expert Jorge Contreras and being published Oct. 26, provides a front-row seat to the courtroom drama that would upend three decades of federal intellectual property law and chart a new course toward balancing corporate profits with the rights of all people to the information written into their DNA.

STAT+ Exclusive Story

Already have an account? Log in

This article is exclusive to STAT+ subscribers

Unlock this article — plus daily coverage and analysis of the biotech sector — by subscribing to STAT+.

Already have an account? Log in

Monthly

$39

Totals $468 per year

$39/month Get Started

Totals $468 per year

Starter

$30

for 3 months, then $39/month

$30 for 3 months Get Started

Then $39/month

Annual

$399

Save 15%

$399/year Get Started

Save 15%

11+ Users

Custom

Savings start at 25%!

Request A Quote Request A Quote

Savings start at 25%!

2-10 Users

$300

Annually per user

$300/year Get Started

$300 Annually per user

View All Plans

Get unlimited access to award-winning journalism and exclusive events.

Subscribe Log In

Previous article： Hepatitis C has a cure — but many Americans still lack access to it
Next article： AstraZeneca, Daiichi breast cancer treatment succeeds in trial

WSS

Readout Newsletter: Amylyx, Aurinia, and IQVIA

Emergency workers more likely to restrain Black patients: study

Too many hospitalized Covid

Second xenotransplant done with gene

Drug for rare kidney disease narrowly misses mark in clinical trial

Congress must protect the remaining independent doctors

focus

comprehensive

This article is exclusive to STAT+ subscribers

Unlock this article — plus daily coverage and analysis of the biotech sector — by subscribing to STAT+.

leisure time

Hollywood unions extend contract negotiations for actors

Senators: Long

The high cost of giving birth even with insurance

Emergency workers more likely to restrain Black patients: study

State Dept. review finds Biden bears some blame for Afghanistan failures

Senate HELP committee spars over health care workforce policies

DIEP, the 'gold standard' of breast reconstruction, is under threat

Amylyx and the next ALS drug test, plus a chat with CRISPR's CEO

Over 800 arrested across France in 3rd night of riots after fatal police shooting of teen

Experts study whether long Covid risk adds up with each reinfection

knowledge

Emergency workers more likely to restrain Black patients: study

How AI helped researchers track recovery from depression

Latigo launches with $135 million for Vertex

Abbott's new heart device gets FDA advisory panel nod

STAT Boddities: What happens to the brain when we get scared?

Why are Kaiser Permanente staff considering a strike?

focus

entertainment

focus

focus