Industry buzz surrounding the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling last month that ended patents on human genes isn’t rocking the world of one laboratory testing company with an Orange County presence.
“The ruling doesn’t influence what we are doing,” said Bastian van der Baan, vice president of clinical affairs for Agendia BV, a Dutch medical testing laboratory with U.S. headquarters in Irvine, in an interview last week.
The Supreme Court last month ended the 30-year practice of awarding patents on human genes in a case involving Salt Lake City-based Myriad Genetics Inc. The case was centered on a pair of genes known as BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 that have a relationship to breast cancer.
Justices ruled that naturally occurring human genes cannot be patented. They also ruled, however, that patents can be claimed on modified DNA.
Agendia isn’t affected because its patents cover a method of testing rather than a gene, according to van der Baan.
He said Agendia goes through historical tumor samples, examines what can and cannot metastasize in breast cancer, and examines activity of 25,000 genes in the human genome.
“We checked which genes are on and which are off,” van der Baan said, referring to the company’s testing development.
Agendia discovered what van der Baan called a “very specific gene pattern” that it found was accurate in predicting whether a breast cancer tumor would metastasize.
“That’s a method—looking for those 70 genes is not obvious,” he said, adding it’s “always possible” to patent a method as long as they’re new and inventive.
Van der Baan compared the Myriad ruling with a question of “can you patent a leaf on a tree? The Supreme Court ruled no—you cannot patent nature.
“In the patent landscape, something needs to be new, inventive, not obvious and not a law of nature,” he said.
Other Orange County companies said they would be developing tests in the wake of the Myriad ruling.
“It’s such a win for patients. Everyone was crying, jumping up and down and shouting,” Elizabeth Chao, chief medical officer of Ambry Genetics Corp. in Aliso Viejo, told the scientific journal Nature in an article on the ruling. Ambry has said it will launch its own breast cancer gene test involving BRCA 1 and BRCA 2.
Quest Diagnostics Inc., a New Jersey company whose local operations include the Quest Diagnostics Nichols Institute in San Juan Capistrano, said it’s going to validate and offer a BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 test to its physicians and patients this year.
Separately, Irvine-based CombiMatrix Corp., which performs DNA-based testing for developmental disorders and cancer, expanded its partnership with Torrance-based Pathology Inc. CombiMatrix will be the exclusive provider of chromosomal microarray attests for Pathology’s miscarriage-testing market throughout the country.
Miscarriage testing is also known as “products of conception” testing and is a subset of the overall prenatal testing market.
Griffin Adds Properties
Newport Beach-based real estate investor Griffin-American Healthcare REIT II Inc. has acquired 21 buildings for an aggregate purchase price of $141.3 million.
Griffin-American said its portfolio of healthcare real estate now totals 174 buildings bought for some $1.56 billion. Its properties are spread across 28 states.
It’s comprised of 17 medical office buildings and four nursing homes in Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Texas.
Bits and Pieces
San Clemente-based medical device maker Sensory Medical Inc. said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it has raised $250,000 in a second round of financing. Sensory, which makes devices for treating restless-legs syndrome, didn’t disclose the investor’s identity, round or proceeds for the funding. … Fountain Valley-based MemorialCare Health System said MemorialCare Medical Group and Greater Newport Physicians—two medical groups associated with the system’s MemorialCare Medical Foundation—received “four-star” status from the L.A.-based California Association of Physician Groups. … The University of California, Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business Center for Digital Transformation is presenting “Health Information Exchanges in the Era of Accountable Care” on July 10 in the Calit2 auditorium on the university’s campus. The keynote speaker is Sajid Ahmed, chief information and innovations officer for Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital Healthcare Corp. in Los Angeles.
