GENETIC TECHNO ENFORCES CANCER TEST RIGHTS
July 14th 2008 10:21
Friday July 11, 2008
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* ASX, BIOTECHS UP: PRANA UP 18%, PHYLOGICA DOWN 20%
* GENETIC TECHNO ENFORCES BREAST, OVARIAN CANCER TEST RIGHTS
* IMPEDIMED RAISES $1.2m FOR US CAMPAIGN
* HEARTWARE BACKS PLACEMENT, DISSENT ON BARBERICH OPTIONS
* BIO-MELBOURNE: PATENT MANAGEMENT FOR BIOTECH COMPANIES
* CAPITAL GROUP INCREASES TO 6.5% OF COCHLEAR
* KINETIC INCREASES TO 6.5% OF NANOSONICS
* INCITIVE AGM TO VOTE ON DIRECTORS, OPTIONS, PLACEMENTS
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GENETIC TECHNOLOGIES
Genetic Technologies will “enforce the rights … to use Myriad’s patents to perform diagnostic testing of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes in Australia and New Zealand”.
Genetic Technologies chief executive officer Michael Ohanessian told Biotech Daily that the genes were markers for a predisposition to inherited breast and ovarian cancer.
Mr Ohanessian said the company had not enforced its rights to the exclusive licence acquired in October 2002 from Myriad Genetics to perform diagnostic testing in Australia and New Zealand.
He said that public sector laboratories had been doing the testing and they were aware the Genetic Technologies had the rights but had chosen not to enforce those rights.
In May 2003, Genetic Technologies publicly announced that it would not enforce its right to prevent other service providers from performing BRCA testing in those jurisdictions.
Mr Ohanessian said Genetic Technologies had been building its capacity to do this testing and would undertake work in this market.
“We have been in contact with these laboratories and we are seeking a constructive way forward,” Mr Ohanessian said.
He said Genetic Technologies was aware that it was an emotive subject and the company would ensure that there was a smooth transition and the there would be no interruption to services.
Mr Ohanessian would not indicate whether Genetic Technologies was seeking a royalty payment from the existing laboratories or was seeking to prevent them undertaking the test.
In a media release to the ASX Genetic Technologies said it had paid ongoing fees to Myriad Genetics in respect of the BRCA licence and invested “several million dollars” in establishing a world-class, rapid, high-throughput, Australian National Association of Testing Authorities and Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia-accredited molecular diagnostic laboratory.
“We think our service is the most efficient,” Mr Ohanessian told Biotech Daily.
The company’s media release said its diagnostic laboratory “enabled us to offer a premium service in terms of quality, turnaround time and efficiency in the delivery of BRCA testing to our familial cancer clinic customers”.
Genetic Technologies said that over the last two years it had “consistently delivered test results within an eight week turnaround time”.
The company said the eight week turnaround was consistent with the expectations specified in the June 2003 UK White Paper, ‘Our Inheritance, Our Future – Realising the Potential of Genetics in the NHS’ presented to the British Parliament by the Secretary of State for Health, an initiative driven by a $37 million investment by the British Government in laboratory infrastructure.
Genetic Technologies said it was delivering a turnaround time “of just four weeks, in stark contrast to certain other laboratories that, according to the Human Genetics Society of Australasia’s 2006 Quality Assessment Program for Molecular Genetics, had an average turnaround time of up to 11 months”.
“It is our view that the provision of rapid, high quality DNA test results plays an important part in the enhancement of patient care and assists the healthcare sector to deliver cost effective clinical management,” Genetic Technologies said.
“Given that Genetic Technologies now offers an excellent service and has considerable excess capacity, the company has made a commercial decision to enforce the exclusive rights granted to it by Myriad Genetics to perform diagnostic testing of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes in Australia and New Zealand,” the company said.
Genetic Technologies climbed 0.6 cents or 7.14 percent to nine cents.
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