Sir

In your interesting Nature Science Update1 “24-hour genome dawns”, you report on the prospect of a personal sequence in minutes, for less than $1,000. Patents will present at least two major problems to the timely adoption of these technologies2,3.

First, some US companies will not license 'their' genes for testing by others, so any diagnostic chip would have to skip the patented gene estate of Myriad Genetics and similar outfits. Second, for those willing to license their genes non-exclusively for inclusion in diagnostic gene chips and similar tools, the stacked royalties payable on all the patented genes will make the tests prohibitively expensive.

Technological advances will benefit patients only if owners of diagnostic gene patents permit the technologies to be used and are reasonable in their demands for royalties, such as by limiting their expectations to a small fraction, say 1–3%, of the marginal cost allocable to their genes4.