Supreme Court to hear Prometheus

The Supreme Court granted cert in the Prometheus case [628 F.3d 1347 (Fed. Cir. 2010) ] on petition from Mayo Clinic.

Note that one claim in question has two wherein clauses:

1. A method of optimizing therapeutic efficacy for treatment of an immune-mediated gastrointestinal disorder, comprising:

(a) administering a drug providing 6-thioguanine to a subject having said immune-mediated gastrointestinal disorder; and

(b) determining the level of 6-thioguanine in said subject having said immune-mediated gastrointestinal disorder,

wherein the level of 6-thioguanine less than about 230 pmol per 8x108 red blood cells indicates a need to increase the amount of said drug subsequently administered to said subject and

wherein the level of 6-thioguanine greater than about 400 pmol per 8x108 red blood cells indicates a need to decrease the amount of said drug subsequently administered to said subject.

Techdirt has commented Supreme Court Will Review The Patentability Of Medical Diagnostic Tests

CourthouseNews observed:

In its latest petition to the Supreme Court, Mayo asked the justices to answer whether a system is patentable if it covers observed correlations between blood test results and patient health, so that the claim effectively preempts all uses of the naturally occurring correlations, simply because well-known methods used to administer prescription drugs and test blood may involve "transformations" of body chemistry.