Myriad Genetics, accompanied by two universities, has filed a lawsuit against the Supreme Court's decision to not allow patents on human genes, the Washington Post reported.

Myriad is the lead plaintiff and the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Utah Research Foundation have also signed on. When the ruling was made, Ambry Genetics began offering testing for the BRCA gene, which is most commonly linked to breast cancer.

Myriad has always claimed a monopoly of sorts on testing for the BRCA gene, but the Supreme Court is trying to take that away. None of the three plaintiffs commented on the matter.

"Why are universities trying to force a potentially life-saving cancer test off the market?" Post blogger Timothy B. Lee wrote.  "The short answer seems to be money."

Numerous universities have "technology transfer" offices dedicated to obtaining patents to university research and then licensing them to private corporations. This practice generated $1.8 billion in revenue in 2011.

Universities were obtaining about 250 patents a year back in 1980, reported the Wall Street Journal. However, since the Bayh-Doyle Act was passed, that number has shot up to nearly 4,000.

Actress Angelina Jolie recently made public her double mastectomy operation when she feared she might be at risk for breast cancer. According to Green Left Weekly, those treatments likely cost about $3,000 and is out of the price range of most women. The Supreme Court's decision would like bring that price down for BRCA1 and BRCA2 testing.

Lee argued that the lawsuit makes sense for private companies like Myriad because they must reward investors for the creative input. He did say however, that universities have no business joining the suit. University research is often funded by taxpayers and private philanthropists. Furthermore, those conducting the research are approaching the work for educational value and not for profit.

Myriad Genetics has, however, invested more than $500 million into making genetic testing becoming available to the masses, according to news release publihed by the company Monday. The testing is widely covered by most public and private insurance agencies and can make out-of-pocket expenses as low as $100 or less.

"We recognize that a large number of Americans are underinsured and have many expenses that raise their healthcare costs," Peter D. Meldrum, president and CEO of Myriad, said in the release. "We want to ensure that those with the greatest financial need have access to our diagnostic tests and this new component of our financial assistance program will make that possible. A lack of financial resources should not be an impediment to quality healthcare." 

To be eligible for Myriad's financial assistance, patients must have private insurance, meet their insurance's coverage criteria for testing, and meet low income requirements (household incomes up to 200 percent of the Federal poverty level), the release stated.

The only benefit for universities, Lee wrote, is that the schools would be able to afford more expensive research than they were before.

(This article was edited by the author to include three new paragraphs of information not previously available.)