A Labor backbencher will present caucus with a private member's bill that will effectively ban patents on all genetic material, including human genes.

Parliament recently passed the Raising The Bar bill, which was designed to protect cancer researchers who want access to genetic material that has been patented by private and public corporations.

Every person's genetic make-up includes 23,000 genes which determine everything about a person, including their susceptibility to disease.

Some 4,000 genes, or 20 per cent of the humane genome, have been patented by organisations hoping to profit through exclusive research on them.

But Melissa Parke says the Government's bill does not go far enough and is lobbying caucus to accept her new private member's bill.

"There was some very positive changes to the IP [intellectual property] system in the Raising The Bar Bill, but the problem with it is it did not address the issue of patentable subject matter," she said.

"It did not cover gene patents. It is an omission that needs to be rectified."

This could be the second time a bill is introduced to the Parliament to ban patents on genes.

In November 2010, Senator Bill Heffernan and other cross-party supporters introduced the first private member's bill that would have banned patents on genetic and biological material.

That bill was considered too wide in scope.

Therapies at stake

The Government did include an exemption for medical researchers, but the Cancer Council, which backs Ms Parke's bill, says it does not work in practice.

Cancer Council chief executive Professor Ian Olver is concerned that each gene is "effectively owned" by the patent holder.

"If you can just get a patent by discovering the presence of a gene, you really block everyone else from working on that gene," he said.

"We say that isn't what patent law should be. It should be about an inventive step, then you can have the patent."

At stake is the future of cancer therapies. If one company is allowed to monopolise research on particular genes, then that blocks the ability of scientists to use those genes and share their results with their colleagues.

Dr Olver says the current bill does not stop patent holders from intervening in crucial research.

"Our problem is that the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 - the breast cancer genes patents that was threatened to be enforced in 2008 - showed us that companies could hold a monopoly over genes," he said.

"It would stop other companies from developing new treatments, and the next new treatments are going to be targeted new therapies in cancer based on genes and their products.

"The floodgates are about to open, so we need to get this legislation right now."

Exclusive ownership

In 2009, Lateline broadcast a report on the issue of the two main breast and ovarian cancer genes BRCA 1 and BRCA 2.

In Australia, Melbourne company Genetic Technologies Limited has the exclusive license from Myriad Corporation in the United States to conduct tests on the breast cancer genes.

In 2003 and 2008, Westmead Hospital and the Peter MacCallum Laboratory in Victoria received a legal letter from Genetic Technologies Ltd demanding they cease all testing for the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes in women.

A public outcry over the issue forced Genetic Technologies to withdraw the legal threat against the public researchers, but genetic technologies could enforce their patent at any time.

In the US, women pay Myriad Corporation close to $4,000 to see if they have genes that will trigger breast cancer.

Myriad can change what it wants for the breast cancer gene tests because it is a monopoly.

If women in the US want an opinion other than the one supplied by Myriad, they have to travel to Canada.

Lateline contacted AusBiotech, the organisation that represents Australia's biotech industry. It was unable to comment on Monday but indicated it would respond in the near future.

In the meantime, two significant court hearings are underway - one in the US and one in Australia - to overturn gene patents.

The US supreme court recently decided patents should not be allowed on natural phenomena.