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Gazette Highlights News 2000 |
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Week
52:
- There may be clues this week to the identity of protein tyrosine
KDR kinase inhibitors that Celltech has in preclinical evaluation
for cancer. The program was first noted in company...
- Iceland seldom features in the Gazette, but this week
there is an application claiming serine proteinase inhibitors
isolated from cold-adapted organisms...
- There are indications that AstraZeneca may be returning to an
established class of (thio)chroman and tetrahydronaphthalene derivatives
in the search for new neurological agents. Five applications...
- Chase Manhattan Bank has never before featured in the Gazette,
but a case is included this week relating to an internet-based
foreign currency exchange system...
- For the record, the total number of PCT applications published
during 2000 is just 142 short of the 80,000 mark, or an average
of 1536 per week. As luck would have it...
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Week
51:
- Inter-company links inferred from inventors' addresses may be
misleading, most obviously because inventors may move from one
employer to another. That was certainly the case last June when
applications from Roche...
- Clusters of inventions this week characterize the new compound
innovation in Section A, with no fewer than 37 cases being grouped,
with related work. The companies responsible include 3M...
- Two weeks ago we announced here that we would shortly be extending
the scope of the Gazette to include what we described as
"non-chemical therapies". The broader retrieval strategy...
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Week
50:
- Shionogi offers a possible clue to the identity of its favored
HIV-integrase inhibitor, S-1360, in an application claiming synthesis
of propenone derivatives...
- Kaneka demonstrates continued interest in statin-type HMG-CoA
reductase inhibitors in an application describing synthesis of
hydroxyoxopentanoic acid derivatives...
- Lilly has applications relating to cryptophycin intermediates
and to dibenzosuberanes which may be relevant to a joint multidrug
resistance discovery program being undertaken with Elan...
- There is a novel ribonucleoside application from the Academy
of Sciences of the Czech Republic, a relative newcomer to pharmaceutical
patenting, and a screening platform case from Triad Therapeutics...
- Collaboration, or at least spin-off, is in evidence in composition
cases from Kinetek (associated with the University of British
Columbia) and in New Zealand from Genesis R&D...
- The Christmas and New Year holiday period is approaching, and
Gazette subscribers may find it useful to learn of Current
Patents' plans for the next three weeks...
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Week
49:
- Nereus Pharmaceuticals Inc of San Diego is new to patenting,
having been established through venture capital funding raised
during the past year. The company has collaborated with the University
of California...
- Celltek Biotechnologies Inc of Qu?c with claims to hexapeptide
based chemokine receptor CCR3 antagonists is also new to patenting...
- By chance there is also an application from the homophonic UK-based
company Celltech...
- Another possible use for squaric acid derivatives, specifically
the dibutyl ester SADBE, is in treating alopecia, and that happens
to be the field in which there is a series of seven linked cases
from P&G...
- Subscribers to the Gazette will be pleased to learn that
plans are in hand to extend the subject scope somewhat from the
beginning of 2001. Already our selection goes considerably beyond
the boundaries of conventional therapy based...
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Week
48:
- SmithKline Beecham's PDE IV inhibitor cilomilast (Ariflo) is
the subject of some attention this week with claims to new salts
of this cis 4-cyano-4-[3-(cyclopentyloxy)-4-methoxyphenyl]-cyclohexan-1-carboxylate...
- Targacept, the former R J Reynolds Tobacco subsidiary, has claims
this week to a variety of pharmaceutical compositions comprising
aryloxyalkylamines and arylthioalkylamines...
- Factor Xa inhibitors are the subject of a notable cluster of
no less than nine new applications from COR Therapeutics this
week. Probably linked to recent work disclosed...
- November 29th, last Wednesday, was the day when the provisions
of the American Inventors' Protection Act came into force, but
this will not take full effect for at least another 18 months...
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Week
47:
- Already in its tenth year, EP550696 was finally granted this
week to Roche. The subject matter is a thermostable nucleic acid
polymerase enzyme from Thermosipho Africanus...
- Elsewhere, it would appear that AstraZeneca are revisiting some
of their older compounds. An application this week describes a
particular enantiomer...
- This week also sees two new product cases that describe the
first concrete results of well known drug screening and discovery
programs have been published. Firstly, a joint application of
Medivir and Peptimmune...
- The other comes from San Diego-based Neurocrine Biosciences,
disclosing novel small molecule GnRH antagonists for the treatment
of sex-hormone related conditions...
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Week
46:
- Celltech Chiroscience appears to be moving into new areas this
week with claims modulators of the PDE 7 receptor. In an application
published, as is the company's custom, under the name Darwin Discovery...
- Integrin antagonists appear to be the focus of attention of
several companies this week. Prominent among these is a series
of three applications from Aventis Pharma claiming a broad range...
- Australia is the source of a rather odd and as yet unexplained
duplication phenomenon, since there are what seem to be two identical
applications from that continent entitled...
- Deserving a second glance is the Hewlett-Packard US patent issued
this week with an abstract including the phrase "type matching
reduces the likelihood of creating unfit child organisms"...
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Week
45:
- AstraZeneca has had some good news this week with the granting
of EP652872 (originally published as WO9427988 on 8th December
1994), in which the company claims the magnesium salt of the proton-pump...
- In contrast, Pfizer's patent portfolio has suffered a setback
this week with a judgement from the UK High Court declaring a
key patent relating to use of the blockbuster drug Viagra invalid...
- The original product patent for sildenafil citrate is EP463756B,
published 7th June 1991, claiming priority from 20th June 1990
and granted on 19th April 1995. Under the terms of this earlier
patent...
- Antagonists of the CCR5 receptor are the subject of newly published
applications from both Schering Corporation and Takeda, the former
with two new compound inventions and a formulation case...
- Progesterone receptor modulators are the subject of an epic
sequence of 20 new compound and formulation/uses cases from American
Home Products and Ligand Pharmaceuticals...
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Week
44:
- Malaysia, Illinois and Cambridge (UK) are implicated in a theme
covering several of this week's inventions. Latex from the Calophyllum
lanigerum tree was screened by the US...
- By chance presumably, two other inventions link to the one from
Sarawak MediChem mentioned above. Apparently not connected with
the Illinois venture, there is a Spanish company also called Medichem,...
- IRL Inc of New Jersey is named as applicant on an application
relating to novel oligosaccharide antibacterial agents. The di-
and trisaccharides are structurally related to the moenomycin
class...
- It is relatively unusual for candidates of unknown structure
to enter advanced clinical trials, but that is what seems to have
happened in the case of one of GlaxoWellcome's antiasthmatic steroid
antagonists...
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Week
43:
- Coelacanth Chemical Corporation of New Brunswick has two applications
in rather different fields. In a new compound case there are claims
to PPAR-gamma antagonists...
- The term "targetshape" appears, possibly for the first time,
in an application from Bios Group of Santa Fe, New Mexico. It
is used in describing a process designed to identify initial candidate
molecules...
- The University of Geneva is linked indirectly with the Bios
invention, though it takes a March 1998 press release from Ixsys
to reveal that link; US5723323, licensed to Ixsys for the directed
evolution technology...
- Clues are accumulating in relation to Pfizer's ongoing interest
in PDE-IV inhibitors, with a further application relating to synthesis
of indazole derivatives. Use of such compounds...
- Many of the companies and institutions benefiting from Current
Patents Gazette were represented at the 10th Epidos Annual
Conference, hosted by the European Patent Office...
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Week
42:
- The US NIH has claims this week to oligodeoxynucleotides that
can be used to induce an immune response, where the pure or isolated
oligodeoxynucleotides comprise at least about 10 nucleotides and
the central...
- Among this week's chemical process applications appear several
cases that have links to drugs currently in development. Lilly
has claims to a process for preparing 3-aryloxy-3-arylpropylamines
and related...
- This week has also seen fruition of an agreement between Nanogen
and Becton Dickinson, announced on May 5th 1997, with the publication
of 6 PCT applications published under the name of...
- And finally, "Method for renewing living being permantly (sic)"
is the strangely entitled application originating from a Tokyo
based inventor...
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Week
41:
- Among the companies claiming new chemical entities in this week's
PCT publications are two that appear to be new to international
patenting. Esperion Pharmaceuticals of Ann Arbor in the US has
claims to a series...
- Elsewhere, Quebec based Pharmacor's application covers hydroxyphenyl
derivatives with HIV integrase inhibitory properties. This relatively
young Canadian biopharmaceutical company...
- Also among this week's New Compound cases, specialist neuropharmaceutical
company Neurogen can be seen with four new applications claiming
aryl and heteroaryl fused aminoalkyl-imidazole derivatives that
act as...
- Millennium Pharmaceuticals have come up with a interesting new
angle on combinatorial technology this week with claims to a series
of combinatorial arrays aimed not at the preparation of new compound
libraries but...
- It has been announced this week that Merck and SmithKline Beecham
have donated $6.5 million to a mouse genome project to enable
public access to this information two years earlier than planned...
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Week
40:
- The University of Hertfordshire was linked by our analysts to
an application on nuclease activity determination which appeared
six weeks ago, WO0049172. The correctness of that inference...
- Brevity, or perhaps obscurity, characterizes an application
from King's College London entitled simply ¿Factor¿. The inventors
are in the college's Biomedical Sciences Division...
- Following on from last week's Aventis Cropscience case claiming
herbicidal compounds with potential human therapeutic activities,
four PCT applications from P&G...
- Eleven applications last week from Human Genome Sciences, and
ten the week before, are now followed by eighteen all entitled
"Human secreted proteins". HGS has been patenting genetic material...
- New companies seem to have appeared as innovators in the process
chemistry field in both Hungary and Italy. Alex-Gyogyszer Kutatasi
is becoming involved in the production of penicillins...
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Week
39:
- Knoll, with inventions from Germany, the UK and the US, is conspicuous
with a three series of inventions relating the novel uses of known
therapeutic compounds. Of 27 PCT applications...
- Doxazosin, the subject of several recent inventions including
applications from the originator, Pfizer, is also now the subject
of claims from Knoll. Use in seizures and...
- Aventis Cropscience, located in Frankfurt, Gemany, would not
normally be expected to be involved in innovation relevant to
human therapy, but an invention concerned with herbicidal heterocycles...
- The Parker Hughes Institute is named as applicant this week
on 12 PCT applications and as assignee on a US patent, all in
the general field of cancer therapy, antiinfectives or immunomodulators...
- Two PCT filings from the Danish biotech company Exiqon document
the progress of the company's LNA (Locked Nucleic Acid) technology.
LNA's contain a methylene...
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Week
38:
- Signal Pharmaceuticals of San Diego and Axys of South San Francisco
have claims among this week's New Compounds to a series of novel
modulators of estrogen receptors...
- In contrast, Ono has lost a collaborator on its application
claiming to a range of novel, therapeutic 1,3,4- oxadiazole derivatives.
The compounds are related to a series of...
- In Europe, Merck has seen the granting of EP828703 this week,
originally filed on 25th May 1995 and published as WO9637457.
The patent claims an asymmetric synthesis of...
- Among the other granted European patents this week, Monsanto
also has claims to retroviral protease inhibitors in EP735019
while HMR covers a series of biphenylic compounds...
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Week
37:
- Ceptyr Inc, the Washington-based discovery company has its first
international patent application published only just over a year
after its venture capital raising was completed...
- The origins of the phosphatase expertise assembled by Ceptyr
can be traced back more than ten years, to an application filed
early in 1990 by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL)...
- Novuspharma, as its derivation suggests, is new. The Italian
company came into being as Roche acquired most of Boehringer Mannheim
early in 1998, and its name has only recently begun to appear...
- From the above casual observations it seems that not all of
the patent property originally associated with Boehringer Mannheim
has passed to Roche with the merger, and care needs to be exercised...
- Ranbaxy in India, with further claims to forms of cephalexin,
and Wyckoff in the US are among companies claiming syntheses of
products which are already successful...
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Week
36:
- A public holiday in Switzerland on September 7th has unavoidably
delayed publication of this week's Gazette by a few hours,
and the PCT documents included bear the formal publication...
- The other principal patent offices have also had their production
problems this week. At the USPTO, US6112451 has issued bearing
the title "Statement regarding federally sponsored..." ...
- The European Patent Office has a problem of a rather different
kind, and one which has been known about for some time. The particular
issue is sequence listings associated with gene...
- Glaxo is seeking the assistance of an Australian specialist,
SGE International Pty in developing robotic microfluidic equipment...
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Week
35:
- SmithKline Beecham has two PCT applications published with titles
employing a total of only seven characters, namely Q13 and tktA.
Both of these enigmatic documents...
- The University of California has a PCT application published
this week in which protected aminoacids for use in dipeptide synthesis
are described...
- Meningitis remains both a challenge to scientists and a subject
of popular concern, and two inventions this week describe further
progress in the development of effective vaccines. Workers at
Chiron SpA's...
- As early as 1994 there were reports of an anticancer drug designated
XR-5000 entering clinical trials in New Zealand. Patent protection
for that candidate, an acridine derivative...
- Biotech inventions classed in IPC C12n clearly outnumber alicyclic
and heterocyclic inventions combined, in this week's published
PCT applications. Among the granted European patents...
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Week
34:
- Schering AG appear to be putting considerable effort into development
of epothilone analogs...
- Continuing the vast interest in stem cell research, researchers
at United States Surgical have developed mesenchymal stem cells
with reduced immunogenicity...
- DzGenes, a small medical genomics company, has filed its first
PCT application disclosing single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)
associated with end-stage renal disease...
- Cell adhesion modulators feature from three major companies.
Merck & Co are more specific in...
- Neuropathic pain is the target addressed by AstraZeneca in a
case relating to prostaglandin E antagonists. That in itself is
not too unexpected...
- Obscurity may also have been the fate awaiting an application
from Bioreason Inc of New Mexico, whose specification entitled
"Method and system for artificial intelligence..." ...
- Not dissimilar, in that sense, is SB's application entitled
"Apparatus and method for depersonalizing information". This invention...
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Week
33:
- The humble sea grape cannot often come under public scrutiny
to quite the extent that it does in one of this week's US patents.
A Florida-based private inventor, William Buckley, is claiming
that an extract...
- Natural products featuring elsewhere include phytosterols, the
subject of an extraction process from Cognis Deutschland, and
the cryptophycins which Lilly is pursuing in collaboration with
teams at...
- Antiviral optimization seems to be on the agenda for several
companies. In its specialist field of NNRTIs, Medivir has already
achieved considerable success in identifying leads. These include
MIV-150...
- From Germany comes news of a commitment to apply a narrow interpretation
to new national legislation governing the patenting of genetic
material. The changes are needed, as they will be throughout...
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Week
32:
- Equivalent patents are not covered in the Gazette, but
sometimes it's a bit tough deciding what is actually an equivalent.
Obviously if two cases quote the same priority, they must have
essentially the same...
- This week's new compound cases sees AHP and AstraZeneca consolidating
some of their existing projects with the publication of multiple
applications in the field of cardiovascular disorders and antiinflammatories...
- Among this week's granted European patents are a couple of interesting
examples from the field of biotechnology. Novartis has been granted
EP515313B, first filed 20th May 1992...
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Week
31:
- BMS and Glaxo are among the companies this week patenting in
rather unexpected fields. The BMS invention, entitled "Sonic impinging
jet crystallization apparatus and process", is treated in the
Gazette...
- Serotonin 5-HT2C receptors appear to be a recurring theme among
this week's New Compound cases. Lilly has claims to a series of
aminoalkylbenzofurans that act as...
- This week in Nature (406, 455; 2000), a correspondence from
John Barton (professor of law at Stamford Univ) and Joseph Strauss
(Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Patent,...)
...
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Week
30:
- Forensics, criminology, genealogy and genomics come together
in an unusual invention from Isis Innovation relating to the correlation
between chromosomal DNA and family names. Professor Bryan Sykes...
- Moves are afoot in the US to end recurring budgetary uncertainty
at the Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Traditionally part
of the fees received by the USPTO, currently $1.2bn per year...
- This week sees the first published application of Kinetix Pharmaceuticals
of Medford, Massachuesetts. This privately held biopharmaceutical
company, founded in March 1997, specializes in the discovery and
development of small molecule drugs...
- Errata: In last week's front page Highlights we referred to
a case implying collaboration between Aventis and Hoechst. The
case (WO0042061) is in fact in the name of Hoechst Marion Roussel
(now Aventis)...
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Week
29:
- Warner-Lambert has a cluster of six MEK inhibitor applications
published this week, and Byk Gulden has five covering PDE IV inhibitory
phenanthridines...
- Bayer possibly deserves closer attention, since an application
describing arylimino heterocycles as progesterone receptor binding
agents may signify entry into a new discovery field. It is possible
that...
- Dae Sang is a Korean company entering the international patent
scene for the first time, with an application describing the enzymic
transformation of cephalosporin C; there is however a link...
- Another collaboration, between Aventis and Hoechst, is the implied
subject of an application from the latter in which intermediates
for an interleukin 1(-converting enzyme (ICE) inhibitor...
- The BIO (Biotechnology Industry Organization) has been making
representations to a US House Judiciary Committee on the patenting
of biotechnology. Genentech and Incyte...
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Week
28:
- Aventis attracts attention again this week with a pair of applications
claiming the synthesis of aminoesters and adenosines. On the face
of it these inventions are unrelated, but a couple of common...
- On Friday July 7th there was a press release from Alizyme reporting
that a lipase inhibitor, ATL-962 had successfully completed phase
Ia clinical trials...
- The head of the Max Delbr??Centre for Molecular Medicine in
Berlin and the President of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft,
two key German science organizations, have warned...
- Natural products feature in several new applications this week.
Taxols continue to attract the attention of Phytogen and another
Canadian individual inventor. It was of course the bark...
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Week
27:
- It was only a matter of time before a relevant document appeared
bearing the recently introduced A61p as its sole International
Patent Classification (IPC), even though the guidelines...
- KS Biomedix, based just to the south-west of London, has had
to wait almost nine years for the grant of a European patent (EP570414B)
relating to the naphthoquinone antiinflammatories...
- Erratum: In our week 0025 highlights, and again in week 0026,
we mistakenly referred to a collaboration between GW, Roche and
Pfizer on CDKIs and possibly other...
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Week
26:
- The GW/Pfizer/Roche triangular collaboration on CDK inhibitors
(WO0035906, etc) surfaces again this week, in the form of an application
from Glaxo, which names in addition inventors located at Pfizer's...
- A Lonza process application, reading on to antiviral nucleosides
from SB, serves as a reminder of similar technology we highlighted
five years ago...
- Two biotech IP issues making headline news this week concern
the UK's Roslin "Dolly the Sheep" Institute and Elan Pharmaceuticals'
Alzheimer's mouse...
- Classification issues raised here last week have prompted some
interesting correspondence concerning the 7th Edition of the International
Patent Classification, not least the reference to Mikhail Makarov's...
- Another IPC surprise appears this week in the form of an application
from P&G entitled "Method of using steam ironing of fabrics as
a way of causing reduction of physiological..."...
- Whenever we come across a patent document naming no corporate
applicant or assignee, we do our best to associate it with some
recognizable institution, such as a hospital or even a former
employer...
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Week
25:
- Australian magnolia bark has provided researchers at Schering-Plough's
New Jersey site with a potent muscarinic M2 antagonist, himbacine.
The tricyclic nucleus of this alkaloid...
- One of the recurring themes at the ERBI showcase (reviewed briefly
here last week) was that of cell proliferation and potential cancer
therapies utilizing the associated signaling mechanisms...
- The inventions included in our Section C cover both conventional
process development chemistry and the more fundamental technology
associated with combinatorial synthesis and high throughput screening...
- We note a rash of relevant cases published this week bearing
A61P class marks (virtually all as secondary classes), and have
to admit that we are taken a little by surprise. A moment's thought,
however...
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Week
24:
- Biocon India Ltd, apparently unrelated to Biocon OY and other
companies using this name with national suffixes, is seen to be
developing improved syntheses of mycophenolic acid esters. The
mofetil...
- Infrastructure patenting, protecting technology platforms, is
often remarkably difficult to match up with the relevant patent
property, but this is what the Gazette aims to achieve
whenever possible. An example...
- Clues to the IP rights protecting such broad technology are
sometimes to be found in the press releases which appear when
a licensing deal is struck, and as it happens there was such an
event...
- The Human Genome Project, approaching an important milestone,
was a major focus at a meeting held earlier this week near Cambridge,
UK, by ERBI, the Eastern Region Biotechnology Initiative...
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Week
23:
- Chelating agents feature in two processes cases, though in one
of these the link with pharmaceutical is perhaps a little tenuous.
Schering AG has claims to a one-pot synthesis of cyclenes...
- Paroxetine, the highly successful antidepressant SSRI licensed
by Novo Nordisk to SmithKline Beecham, has begun to lose its basic
patent protection, and there has been a considerable amount...
- Enantiomers of established products feature in two other chemical
process cases which may offer pointers to future brand revitalization
efforts. From Darwin Discovery in Cambridge UK...
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Week
22:
- The University of Michigan was wrongly implicated last week
in our comments about the "euthanasia composition". The owner
of the controversial patent is in fact Michigan State University...
- Unscholarly acrimony has erupted in the otherwise dignified
atmosphere of the University of Chicago, over the inventorship
of a herpes simplex vaccine. Dr Bernard Roizman...
- After WO9938013, a second patent application from Xerion Pharmaceuticals,
a young German-based biotechnology company was published this
week. It describes a device for automated...
- Further investigation of an application published on March 9th
reveals interesting developments at the Californian site of BioMedicines.
In WO0012086 the company claims a method of mitigating...
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Week
21:
- "Euthanasia Compositions" is the somewhat forbidding title of
a European patent which is making headline news in Germany this
week. The University of Michigan's EP516811B, first published...
- Glaxo has a case published this week describing how nicotine
addiction is treated using the phase II noradrenaline uptake inhibitor
BW-1555U88. However, there are at least two other cases...
- In another Europen application there are claims to a synthesis
of Pfizer's sildenafil, from the Indian company Orchid Chemical
& Pharmaceuticals. Although Pfizer retains...
- Arcaris (formerly Ventana), Zdravlje and Proteo Tools are among
the emerging companies to appear as applicants in this week's
Gazette. There is also a somewhat unexpected...
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Week
20:
- The European Patent Office, which began operating in 1978, has
just published its millionth application. However unlike the issue
of US5000000...
- A sharp-eyed reader correctly points to some inaccuracies in
last week's comments on forthcoming changes in US patent procedures.
Possibly a significant point...
- A hearing last week at the European Patent Office in Munich
received a representation which was somewhat unusual, if not unique,
in the form a petition bearing half a million signatures. Under
the striking motto "Free the Free Tree"...
- At a conference in Atlanta in April Lifestream Technologies,
in conjunction with Microsoft, presented their Lifestream Cholesterol
Monitor...
- Oxford GlycoSciences announced this week that they have been
granted a US patent covering pioneering high-throughput proteomics
technology...
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Week
19:
- At an excellent meeting of the Patent Information Users Group
(PIUG) last week there was further news of forthcoming US patent
law changes. The conference in Crystal City, close to the USPTO...
- Antiviral compositions are the cause of a recently reported
conflict between an established Pennsylvania-based company and
a substantial privately owned European group. Hemispherx Biopharma,
formerly...
- This week, Genzyme Transgenic has published an application relating
to the creation of transgenic and cloned mammals, with particular
mention to transgenic goats. The company has already developed...
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Week
18:
- On April 28th the European Union joined Australia, Japan, Singapore
and the US in allowing for drugs to be designated "orphan medicinal
products". The designation is dependent upon the drug's being...
- For almost a decade, Lilly has embarked on a large-scale research
program relating to antifungal echinocandin derivatives. However,
the lead compound that finally emerged, anidulafungin,...
- A dispute over gene patenting has emerged between the NIH and
the USPTO. The disagreement centers on whether a patent should
be granted on a genomic sequence of unknown function...
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Week
17:
- A new therapeutic mechanism is described by the Danish company
BioImage in a pair of applications published just one year after
the former Novo Nordisk unit began its separate existence. In
one document...
- The French Commisariat ?'Energie Atomique (CEA) has established
a reputation for contributions to combinatorial technology, and
this week claims a device with sample wells and an analysis support...
- Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) modulators
are a hot topic this week, with several companies claiming new
compounds exhibiting this activity and their use in the treatment
of conditions...
- It was announced this week that the US District Court of Massachusetts
in Boston granted Amgen's motion for summary judgment of literal
infringement. The court ruled that the HMR...
- Also this week, it has been suggested that the Japanese industry
is showing an increased willingness to invest in genomics and
post-genomics research. This has been brought about by the announcement...
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Week
16:
- Easter and May public holidays disrupt three consecutive working
weeks, in the UK at least, but we hope to maintain near-perfect
scheduling of Current Patents Gazette...
- Approved names of drugs in development are rarely quoted in
patent specifications, but this week Pfizer accords front-page
recognition to sildenafil, and by way of confirmation adds its
better-known trade name, Viagra...
- Compulsory citation of code numbers would certainly go a long
way towards sorting out the rapidly evolving NK1 antagonist patenting
from Merck & Co. Two US process cases...
- Schering Corp's WO0020623, or at least its title, was included
in Section C of last week's Gazette as a result of an editorial
error. We would never intentionally include a systematic name...
- Last week, two European Politicians launched the SOS Human Genome,
an initiative proposing a moratorium on implementing the European
Commission's directive for harmonizing biotechnology...
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Week
15:
- Celebrex, the Searle/Pfizer COX-2 inhibitor now described as
the fastest-selling drug of all time, is yet again in the litigation
news this week. The University of Rochester, announcing...
- Bones, and in particular synthetic bone made from macroporous
ceramic foam, are the focus of a Biomedical materials unit established
within Queen Mary & Westfield...
- Novartis and ISIS Pharma have generated a more than usually
complex situation in seeking protection for their jointly developed
oligonucleotides. These include ISIS-3521, also designated CGP-64128A...
- A British judge ruled last week that Affymetrix did not have
the right to use techniques developed by Ed Southern, an Oxford
professor perhaps best known as the inventor of the 'Southern
blot' that is used...
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Week
14:
- The serotonin uptake inhibitor sibutramine, originated by Boots
in the early 1980s, is turning out to be a very versatile product.
Originally seen as an antidepressant and obesity treatment...
- Thalidomide is another product displaying great adaptability
following its disastrous launch as a sedative in 1958. These Highlights
have often included comments on the claiming of new indications...
- The recent UK budget included an intellectual property provision
which may well have gone unnoticed, were it not for a note in
the Official Journal (Patents) highlighting the abolition of stamp
duty on IP transactions...
- An issue raised in the courts last week was, 'Does a patent
on a recombinantly produced protein give the owner rights to versions
of that protein produced in other ways ?'. The biotechnology company
Amgen...
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Week
13:
- GPI NIL Holdings seems to be a fairly new entrant to the drug
discovery scene. Based in Wilmington, Delaware, GPI NIL has but
one previous patent publication, US5721256...
- There are also three interwoven process applications relating
to isochromones. This issue began with the appearance of EP947512,
a Showa Denko application covering compounds...
- Two ACE inhibitor syntheses relate to Merck's enalapril and
lisinopril, though the latter is the subject of claims by Kaneka.
Other products noted include eflornithine...
- Kyowa Medex, still apparently associated with Kyowa Hakko, is
developing screening and diagnostic technology in connection with
the latter's cholesterol drugs. Proligo, on the other hand...
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Week
12:
- There is news from Geneva of a ruling from a legal panel of
the World Trade Organization, in which Canadian laws on development
of generic pharmaceuticals have been under scrutiny. The WTO judged...
- Among recent granted European patents is EP854735B, in which
two Paris-based inventors, brothers apparently, show that it is
possible for non-corporate applicants...
- Elan Pharmaceuticals, based in Ireland, is suing the Minnesota-based
Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research over mice used
to study Alzheimer's disease...
- Ambiguity continues to surround Merck's NK-1 antagonist development
program, as a further process case appears claiming the synthesis
of morpholine derivatives...
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Week
11:
- A valaciclovir tablet containing colloidal silicon dioxide is
claimed by Wellcome in a granted European patent EP806943B, first
published as WO9622082, and Roche has succeeded...
- Among the more unexpected relationships in this week's applications
are implied collaborations involving Taiwanese, Hungarian, German
and Belgian workers. The link with...
- An application from Schering AG claims a crystalline solvate
of an estrogen antagonist which has an interesting history, and
clearly deserves our attention. The conventional estratriene template...
- It's not every day that leading politicians give patents a mention,
but this week they have been on the agenda of talks between Bill
Clinton and Tony Blair. The world leaders exhorted...
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Week
10:
- A series of chemical process cases from SmithKline Beecham at
first sight unrelated, describes the steps required to synthesize
phenylurea derivatives. One of the reagents used...
- From the UK national press we have gleaned a report that a citizen
of Bristol has filed a patent application at the UK Patent Office
entitled "Myself". She is reported to have...
- Cerebrus Pharmaceuticals of Wokingham, UK has five applications
this week claiming a variety of indolines, pyrroloindoles, pyridoindoles,
pyrroloquinolines and azepinoindoles as...
- Elsewhere, among this week's Biotech cases an application from
Incyte Genetics can be found claiming methods for obtaining nucleic
acid containing a mutation...
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Week
09:
- More complications than usual surround a taxoid invention which
names two British and two French inventors. Two of the three pertinent
applications were filed at the European Patent Office in August
1998, by an attorney...
- New compound inventions rarely reveal completely new research,
and it is quite typical to find that more than three-quarters
of the cases in Section A of the Gazette represent continuations
of discovery themes that have been visible...
- At the other extreme, a tiny BMS team attracts attention because
it seems to have moved into a completely new area: the pair seek
protection for antibacterial isoxazolinones...
- From the US there is news of an impending decision from the
New Jersey District Court in Newark concerning Bristol-Myers'
long-running dispute with nine generic manufacturer's of Taxol.
Firms such as IVAX, Mylan...
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Week
08:
- Patent Examiners, like everyone else these days, must often
surf the worldwide web when looking for prior art to cite against
applications. That's all very well if the end point of the search...
- In a press release dated February 22nd, the European Patent
Office admits, with regret that the qualification "(non-human)"
was omitted in error from the wording of a claim to...
- On 22 February 2000, Roche announced that the EPO has affirmed
the issuance of its key patent on the recombinant Taq enzyme (EP395736B),
upholding all of the company's patent claims...
- An interesting case may be seen in this week's New Compound
section where an application filed in the US by Massachusetts
based Eukarion claims bipyridine manganese complexes for use in
the treatment of...
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Week
07:
- Those who went to the trouble of visiting the UK Court Service
website to find out more about the Searle/Merck decision (see
last week's Highlights) may have been somewhat surprised to learn
that the...
- It is now common practice among large US-based pharmaceutical
companies to start the filing process with provisional applications
and converting them to regular applications after one year, thereby
gaining...
- Herpes virus continues to be a hot topic in Section D. Two UK
companies specializing in the field feature this week. Neurovex,
a UCL spin-off, claims herpesviral vectors for dendritic cells
and...
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Week
06:
- A judgement from the UK Patents Court on February 4th seems
to have important implications for the first companies to bring
selective cyclooxygenase-2 (COX2) inhibitors to the antiinflammatory
market...
- A mis-spelling in the official title of a natural product case
gives the initial impression that Takeda has succeeded in extracting
a totally new therapeutic substance, indolemycin...
- Several times during the past year we have been tempted to comment
on the use of the name Aventis on newly published patent applications,
coinciding with the new name selected by the merging RPR and HMR...
- Guidelines on research tools issued recently by the US NIH came
under fire last week from representatives of several small biotechnology
companies at a symposium on intellectual property...
- Legislation to tighten up the supervision of federally funded
human gene-therapy trials was introduced into the US House of
Representatives last week...
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Week
05:
- Tap Holdings of Deerfield, Illinois, is rarely named as a patent
applicant. However, the Takeda/Abbott joint venture this week
has a US patent issued on the subject of COPD...
- Omeprazole, originally patented by Astra in the late 1970s,
is the subject of an AstraZeneca press release dated February
1st. The reason is that a German company, Ratiopharm GmbH,...
- Research on human embryonic stem cells has come a step closer
to being legalized in Japan...
- Finally, following our speculation two weeks ago about the malpractice
case reported in the Cincinnati Enquirer, there is now a document
published, which may reflect an equally unsatisfactory situation
in Texas...
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Week
04:
- We would like to apologize for poor quality of some of the graphs
in last week's article on the merger between Glaxo Welcome and
SmithKline Beecham, particularly the factorial maps...
- After four years of negotiations between the US NIH and the
pharmaceutical company DuPont, NIH-funded scientists now have
free use of the 'OncoMouse', a transgenic animal...
- New companies making an appearance in the Gazette this week
include Hertfordshire-based AdProTech, which claims polypeptide
derivatives of angiogenesis inhibiting proteins...
- And finally, in the recent years, SpectRx and Altea Technologies,
both based in Georgia, have filed a series of joint applications,
such as WO9800193 or WO9944637, concerned with...
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Week
03:
- The week began with news that Glaxo-SmithKline is finally set
to come into existence, after months of on/off rumors. In our
benchmarking study of patenting in the mid-1990s (Current Trends
in Pharmaceutical Discovery Vol 2 Nos 1&2), SB...
- Notice of grant of two UK patents relating to cloning technology
was published this week. GB2318578 and its divisional GB2331751
appear under the names of joint applicants Roslin Institute...
- An intriguing patent has been granted by the US Patent and Trademark
Office this week claiming a method and apparatus for stimulating
the healing of living tissue by repairing damaged aura...
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Week
02:
- In addition to patents and applications from the US, EPO, UK
and WIPO published during the week ending January 14th 2000, this
issue of the Gazette covers European applications published on...
- Though Current Patents Gazette covers some 350 new pharma/biotech
inventions each week, amounting to about 20% of the output of
the major patent offices, it is remarkable that no company...
- While on the topic of statistics, it may be of interest to note
that Current Patents' production database for the past year contains
almost 3,000 unique applicant names. However just over half of
these were...
- Broccoli and cauliflower germplasm may not seem a very relevant
subject for Gazette readers, but in fact John's Hopkins School
of Medicine's application on Cruciferae is directed towards producing
plants...
- After the five-fold patent assault on sildenafil, the subject
of comments in last week's highlights, this week sees three international
applications relating to compositions of paroxetine, the antidepressant
SSRI originated by Ferrosan...
- Farnesyl protein transferase inhibitors feature in no fewer
than nine international applications published this week, and
in at least two of these there are clear indications of the applicants'
preferred development candidates. Merck & Co...
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Week
01:
- We wish all of our readers a happy and prosperous New Year,
of course, and are pleased to report that Current Patents Gazette
has barely been affected by what was, in the UK at least, a somewhat
protracted sequence of public holidays...
- An application filed by Merck & Co in June 1986 continues to
occupy the attention of the Company's attorneys and the USPTO.
Having initially been subject to a couple of continuations-in-part...
- Following an application last week (WO9966933) from the University
of Kentucky's New Millennium Pharmaceutical Research, there is
another this week...
- There are reports of changes of patent law, or at least practice,
from both sides of the Atlantic. Both are concerned with patenting
of life forms, but whereas the general effect in the US...
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