Using genetic tests

In 1999 the U.K.'s National Health Service received demands for royalties on genetic tests it is using to identify a particular predisposition to breast cancer. A U.S. biotechnology company -- based in Salt Lake City -- has patented the genes used in these tests, which its researchers discovered only after a great deal of groundwork had been done in the public domain. The royalties have been set so high that they will strain the budgets of some U.K. clinical genetics centres enough to curtail either the use of this particular test or, if the breast cancer tests are prioritised, the use of genetic tests for other predispositions.