Ontario challenges drug patent.

TORONTO -- The Ontario government has thrown down the gauntlet to the worlds largest pharmaceutical companies offering its own, less costly, new test for heredity breast and ovarian cancer. Myriad Genetics of Utah has patented two genes and a screening process that indicate high risk for cancer.

Health and Long-Term Care Minister Tony Clement and Ontario Women's Health Council Chair Jane Pepino announced that 1,000 women each year will have faster access to screening. The cost will be about one-third that charged by Myriad.

Ontario will spend $1.2 million on a different genetic testing method and research. According to the government's announcement the test is a "more accurate genetic testing method, denaturing high performance liquid chromatography, or DHPLC screening. It is a blood screening process, and is estimated to be more than 95 per cent accurate--about 10 per cent better than current test protocols."

The British Columbia government withdrew from its plan to offer the same test when Myriad, backed by the major drug companies, threatened legal action, BC now sends its patients to Ontario for the test. (Ontario, the much larger and wealthier province may be better able to deal with any legal challenge.) The pharmaceutical industry has, thus far, made no public announcements but is known to be lobbying the federal government for help.

The $1.2 million funding for this new genetic test will be provided to: London Health Sciences Centre, McMaster Medical Centre (Hamilton), Credit Valley Hospital (Mississauga), Mount Sinai Hospital (Toronto), North York General Hospital (Toronto), Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (Ottawa), and Kingston General Hospital. The new testing method and related research will begin by April 1, 2003.