BIOTECH Patent News articles from October - December 2002

BIOTECH Patent News archives from October - December 2002

Pharmacopeia and Kowa form inflammation research collaboration.(Pharmacopeia Inc., Kowa Company Ltd.)
October 1, 2002... Pharmacopeia, Inc. (Princeton, NJ) and Kowa Company, Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan) announced that they have entered into a research collaboration focused on inflammation. The companies will work together to identify promising small molecule lead...

Pharmaceutical Resources prevails in interference proceeding.(Pharmaceutical Resources Inc. wins patent lawsuit against Alpharma Inc.)
October 1, 2002... Pharmaceutical Resources, Inc. (Spring Valley, NY) announced that it has prevailed against Alpharma Inc. in an interference proceeding before the United States Patent and Trademark Office concerning Pharmaceutical Resources' patents and...

U.S. Genomics awarded patent for DNA analysis methods.
October 1, 2002... U.S. Genomics (Woburn, MA) announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted the company a new patent that enhances its portfolio in the field of direct linear DNA analysis. United States Patent 6,403,311 covers...

Patented method could overcome drug resistance in cancer.(Immunomedics Inc. receives patent for conjugated polyspecific antibodies)
October 1, 2002... Immunomedics, Inc. (Morris Plains, NJ) announced the issuance of United States Patent 6,468,530. This patent covers a method of treatment that uses conjugated polyspecific antibodies, or antibodies that bind to more than one target, so that...

Digital Gene to use Accelrys' bioinformatics system.(Digital Gene Technologies Inc.)
October 1, 2002... Accelrys (San Diego, CA), a wholly owned subsidiary of Pharmacopeia, Inc. (Princeton, NJ), announced that Digital Gene Technologies, Inc. has chosen DS SeqStore as a key component of its bioinformatics infrastructure. DS SeqStore is a...

Affymetrix signs gene expression agreement with Schering-Plough.(Affymetrix Inc., Schering-Plough Research Institute)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Affymetrix, Inc., (Santa Clara, CA) has entered into an EasyAccess Silver agreement with New Jersey-based Schering-Plough Research Institute (Kenilworth, NJ) under which Schering-Plough will gain broad access to Affymetrix' standard and custom...

Cellomics announces issuance of cell-based screening patent.
October 1, 2002... Cellomics, Inc. (Pittsburgh, PA) announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued Cellomics United States Patent 6,416,959 entitled "A System for Cell-Based Screening." The patent encompasses methods for High Content...

Amgen wins dialysis arbitration against J&J, awarded $150 million.(Johnson and Johnson)
October 1, 2002... Amgen, Inc. (Thousand Oaks, CA) announced that an arbitrator has found that Johnson & Johnson (New Brunswick, NJ) breached its license agreement with Amgen by promoting its brand of Epoetin alfa, Procrit, into Amgen's reserved dialysis market....

Antisense chemistry interference involves Hybridon.
October 1, 2002... Hybridon, Inc. (Cambridge, MA) announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has declared an interference between United States Patent Application 08/346,270 assigned to the University of Massachusetts (Amherst, MA) and three...

Schering-Plough and Biogen settle royalty payment arbitrations.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Schering-Plough Corporation (Kenilworth, NJ) has settled its arbitrations with Biogen, Inc. (Cambridge, MA) over royalties on United States sales of Schering-Plough's alpha interferon products. As part of the settlement, Schering-Plough in...

NeoPharm to present liposome technology data.
October 1, 2002... NeoPharm, Inc. (Lake Forest, IL) announced that six peer-reviewed abstracts will be presented at upcoming scientific meetings. The data will highlight various preclinical and clinical results employing the company's unique and proprietary...

Medix licenses Immunomedics' carcinoembryonic antigen technology.(Medix Biochemica)
October 1, 2002... Immunomedics, Inc. (Morris Plains, NJ) announced that Medix Biochemica (Kauniainen, Finland) entered into a non-exclusive license agreement under Immunomedics' portfolio of carcinoembryonic antigen patents. These patents cover antibodies that...

Urologix benign prostatic hyperplasia patent lawsuit dismissed.
October 1, 2002... Urologix, Inc. (Minneapolis, MN), reported that its patent infringement claims based on United States Patent 5,234,004, one of two patents asserted against ProstaLund AB, ProstaLund Operations AB ("ProstaLund"), and ACMI Corporation have been...

Immunomedics obtains lymphoma antibody patent.
October 1, 2002... Immunomedics, Inc. (Morris Plains, NJ) announced the issuance of a new United States Patent 6,399,068, which covers therapeutic bispecific antibodies for the treatment of cancers, especially B-cell malignancies, such as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma....

Neurocrine and Taisho restructure diabetes agreement.(Neurocrine Biosciences Inc., Taisho Pharmaceutical Company Ltd.)
October 1, 2002... Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. (San Diego, CA) announced the restructuring of its exclusive agreement with Taisho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. The original agreement signed in January 2000, provided Taisho an option to obtain European and Asian...

ResMed sues Respironics for mask patent infringment.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... ResMed, Inc. (San Diego, CA) filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in San Diego against Respironics, Inc. ResMed's suit seeks a judgment that certain Respironics mask products (Contour Deluxe, Comfort Classic, Comfort Select, and Image3...

Introgen obtains patent for p53 targeted chemotherapy.(Introgen Therapeutics Inc.)
October 1, 2002... Introgen Therapeutics, Inc. (Austin, TX) and The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued to The Board of Regents of The University of Texas System United States...

Congress approves law to expand patent re-examinations.(Patent and Trademark Office Authorization Act of 2002)
October 1, 2002... A provision added to an unrelated spending bill at the last minute, the Patent and Trademark Office Authorization Act of 2002, will expand the scope of patent re-examination and reduce expensive litigation. Re-examination is the process...

Cyclis completes cancer licensing agreement with Beth Israel.(Cyclis Pharmaceuticals Inc., Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center)
October 1, 2002... Cyclis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Norwood, MA), a privately held biopharmaceutical company developing novel cancer therapeutics, has licensed exclusive worldwide rights to broad technology from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the...

Lexicon discovers role of LG688 protein in inflammation.(Lexicon Genetics Inc.)
October 1, 2002... Lexicon Genetics, Inc. (The Woodlands, TX) has discovered a new role in the immune system for a secreted protein that may serve as a target for the development of drugs to treat inflammation associated with arthritis and autoimmune disease....

AGY Therapeutics obtains United States patent.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... AGY Therapeutics, Inc. (South San Francisco, CA) has patented techniques for facilitating the identification of candidate genes from a plurality of DNA sequences. According to an embodiment of the present invention, techniques are provided for...

Universita' Degli Studi di Bologna obtains United States patent.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Universita' Degli Studi di Bologna (Bologna, Italy) and Inserm Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale (Paris, France) have patented an immunoglobulin-like protein useful in preventing or treating pathologies concerned with...

Pharmacopeia obtains United States patent.(genes for bradykinin B.sub.1 receptor)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Pharmacopeia, Inc. (Cranbury, NJ) has patented genes for bradykinin B.sub.1 receptor from five mammalian species, vervet monkey, rhesus macaque, tree shrew, dog and pig. In addition to the delineation of the nucleotide and amino acid sequences,...

Medical College of Georgia Research Institute obtains United States patent.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Medical College of Georgia Research Institute, Inc. (Augusta, GA) has patented cDNA clones whose products may interact with D1 receptors in vivo. One of the clones, P24, was characterized further. P24 is localized in dendrites and spines of...

University of Pennsylvania obtains United States patent.(Wistar Institute, University of Pennsylvania receive patent for immunization methods)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA) and The Wistar Institute (Philadelphia, PA) have patented methods of prophylactic and therapeutic immunization of an individual against pathogen infection, diseases associated with...

Florida State University obtains United States patent.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Florida State University (Tallahassee, FL) has patented mutated CFTR genes encoding modified CFTR proteins that result in increased CFTR chloride channel functions in comparison to wildtype CFTR when the CFTR genes are expressed in vivo. Single...

Advanced Technologies obtains United States patent.(Advanced Technologies (Cambridge) Ltd. patents starch produced by genetically engineered plants)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Advanced Technologies (Cambridge) Limited (London, England) has patented starch of wheat and maize plants altered by the introduction of a chimeric gene comprising a glycogen synthase coding sequence under the control of a promoter directing...

Applera obtains United States patent.(Applera Corp. )(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Applera Corporation (Norwalk, CT) has patented amino acid sequences of glutathione peroxidase polypeptides that are encoded by genes within the human genome. The present invention specifically provides isolated peptide and nucleic acid...

Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule obtains United States patent.(Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Universitat Zurich)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule Zurich (Zurich, Switzerland) and Universitat Zurich (Zurich, Switzerland) have patented materials that may be used in the design of improved devices and wound treatment platforms though covalent and/or...

Oncologic obtains United States patent.(cancer treatment method)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Oncologic, Inc. (Richmond, CA) has patented a method for the treatment of cancer which is capable of directing supra-lethal doses of radiation, called Hot-Spots, virtually exclusively to the cancer. The present invention involves a multi-step...

Metin Colpan obtains United States patent.(nucleic acid vaccination for animals)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Metin Colpan (Essen, DE) has patented a method for nucleic acid vaccination for animals to protect them from parvoviral infection. This invention is more particularly related to the preparation and use of parvoviral DNA and its administration...

Japan Science and Technology obtains United States patent.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Japan Science and Technology Corporation (Saitama-ken, Japan) has patented Bacillus sp. NTAP-1 deposited under accession number FERM BP-6926; and a collagen-decomposing enzyme produced by bacterium. The above enzyme (1) has a capability of...

Millipore obtains United States patent.(Millipore Corp.)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Millipore Corporation (Bedford, MA) has patented a method for rapidly detecting and enumerating microorganisms, having a level of microbial ATP, in the presence of mammalian cell preparations, comprising the steps of: providing a mammalian cell...

Aventis CropScience obtains United States patent.(Aventis CropScience GmbH)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Aventis CropScience GmbH (Frankfurt am Main, Germany) has patented nucleic acid molecules that encode an R1-protein from wheat and methods and recombinant DNA molecules for the production of transgenic plant cells and plants synthesizing a...

Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo obtains United States patent.(fossil fuel refining method)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo (Mexico) and Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (Mexico) have patented a method of removing thiophenic and organosulfide compounds from a fossil fuel comprising the steps of contacting the fossil fuel with...