Salt Lake-based Myriad Genetics Inc. had a patent for diagnosing a predisposition for breast and ovarian cancer revoked by the European Patent Office Tuesday.
The patent was revoked because of a "lack of inventive step" under European rules, the Munich-based authority said.
Opposition to the patent was filed with the European Patent Office in October 2001 by a number of parties including the Institut Curie, other French research institutes and various national centers for human genetics.
Opponents to the patent maintain, among other things, that the invention is not novel under the provisions of European patent law, according to the office.
The number of the revoked patent is 699 754.
Myriad Genetics shares fell 29 cents, or 1.7 percent, to close at $16.44 on Nasdaq Tuesday.
Earlier this month, the company reported a net loss of $10.7 million, or 39 cents per share, for the quarter ended March 31. That compared with a loss of $5.5 million, or 20 cents per share, for the same period a year ago.
Revenues from the company's predictive medicine products grew from $9.3 million to a company-record $11.7 million. Myriad attributed that jump to growing demand for the products stemming from increased sales and marketing efforts and recent publications of studies supporting the clinical use of the products.