Research, medicine and the market:: breast cancer genetics

Breast cancer genetics is marked by a high level of integration of biomedical science and the market. Research on breast cancer predisposition genes is performed in the context of new partnerships between university laboratories, clinical laboratories and firms. Knowledge on genes is appropriated through patents held primarily by a US start-up, Myriad Genetics. The latest fact concerns the link between intellectual property and the building of a new medical market. Myriad Genetics, strengthened by its patents and its industrial apparatus, has developed a private genetic test market that is increasingly autonomous vis-a-vis,is the medical world. Our article, based on a comparison between France and the United States, analyses different modes of production of research faced with market prospects. It then compares two modes of provision and use of genetic tests, and the start-up model as opposed to the clinic model.