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“Myriad/breast cancer” patent revoked after public hearing

Munich, 18 May 2004 - - Earlier today, an opposition division at the European Patent Office (EPO) decided to revoke the “Myriad/breast cancer” patent.

After a public hearing of all parties to the opposition proceedings against the patent, the division - a panel composed of three patent examiners and a legal expert - concluded that the grounds for opposition prejudiced the maintenance of the patent. As a consequence it had to be revoked.

The patent in suit (EP 699 754), granted in early 2001 to Myriad Genetics Inc., the University of Utah Research Foundation and the United States of America, has been the subject of public discussion ever since. Oppositions to the patent were filed in October 2001 by a number of parties including the Institut Curie ¹ , a French research organisation.

This ruling may be challenged by the parties involved, in second-instance proceedings before one of the EPO's technical boards of appeal.

The written statement of grounds for the opposition division's decision will be published in the next few months, and will also be available online via the EPO’s public file-inspection service at www.epoline.org.

¹ Other opponents include: Assistance publique - Hôpitaux de Paris, the Institut Gustave Roussy, the Belgian Society for Human Genetics and the Associazione Angela Serra per la Ricerca sul Cancro.