Free cancer test could cost £1,500

A landmark battle to stop drugs companies charging huge fees for vital cancer tests was under way today.

Doctors and campaigners hope to stop a pharmaceutical firm patenting the method of checking whether women are at risk of breast cancer.

Hundreds of women with a family history of the disease are offered the test, which at present is free on the NHS, to see if they carry the gene that indicates a higher risk of developing breast cancer.

But Myriad, the US pharmaceutical company that discovered the BRCA1 gene, wants to charge up to £1,500 for every patient undergoing the test.

In a test case today, campaigners will warn that thousands of women at risk from the disease could die if the tests become unaffordable.

Myriad already has a monopoly on all BRCA1 testing in America. At the European Patent Off ice in Germany today, campaigners will call for the patent to be abolished. They say it is wrong for businesses to have legal rights over body parts.