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Genetic testing laboratories in the National Health Service are deliberately ignoring most patents on DNA, experts told a meeting in London on Friday.

“The view from the NHS is that, for diagnostics, gene patents are unacceptable, unenforceable and detrimental to the delivery of patient services,” said Gail Norbury, commissioning and governance director of the Genetics Labs at Guy’s Hospital, who is one of Britain’s leading clinical geneticists.

Although hundreds of UK and European patents could cover gene testing, Ms Norbury said NHS laboratories generally ignored them, both because senior staff regarded gene patenting for diagnostics as unjustified and because they did not think patent holders would take enforcement action.

Michael Hopkins of the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex, who has carried out extensive surveys of gene patenting, said the views put forward by Ms Norbury reflected attitudes in healthcare systems across Europe.

“Many of these labs are ignoring intellectual property at the moment, feeling that the patents are not justified,” he told the meeting, which was held by the Human Genetics Commission, a government advisory body...