Gazette Highlights News 1999

Click on a week to view more

Week 52:

The Christmas and New Year/Century/Millennium holidays have inevitably caused some disruption across most sectors of industry and commerce, and Current Science Group is not immune. WIPO adjusted its week 9952 publication date...
Astra and Glaxo are among the applicants for international patent protection this week whose inventors have associations with other institutions, though in neither case is the collaborative...
The Glaxo situation may be rather different, although a careful reading of the inventor lists on the five applications suggests that at least two other entities have participated. One case bears the title "Adenosine derivatives"...

Week 51:

Among 12 international applications published this week in the name of Merck Patent GmbH (E Merck) is a cluster of ten relating to the construction of combinatorial libraries of geminally disubstituted amines...
AnalytiCon is a company specializing in chromatographic separation of the components of natural extracts. In an application published this week the Berlin-based company...
It is never easy to be sure that a particular invention marks the start of a new project, but certainly there seems to be little or no precedent for Eisai's interest in marine natural product antimitotics; work on halichondrins...
At the other extreme, there are applications representing continuation of projects already under way for a decade or more, with varying degrees of success. Lilly, for example, already spectacularly successful with Prozac...
As reported in Nature 402, 852; 1999, a recent US court decision has the effect of lifting the ban on patenting "methods of doing business". Although at first sight irrelevant to the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors...

Week 50:

At a late stage in production of last week's Gazette, we recognized that Zeneca's novel pyruvate dehydrogenase activator case, WO9962873, was related to another case, WO9962506...
An odd situation arises in the field of plant genetics, apparently amounting to a collaboration between Searle and Abbott, though the two applications in question do not make this clear. Both are entitled...
If not unique, the publication on one day of 43 related applications from the same company must be regarded as extremely unusual. Advanced Medicine Inc of South San Francisco...
Last week, a US court ruled that the patent for the naturally occurring form of the widely used reagent Taq DNA polymerase was fraudulently obtained and is thus invalid. It was claimed that the US Patent...

Week 49:

Several granted European patents published this week appear to be relevant to substances in development. For example, Lilly has been granted EP479431B covering intermediates to...
A couple of new projects can be found among the week's new compound cases. Abbott Laboratories has claims to new cell adhesion-inhibiting antiinflammatory compounds based on a 5,6-membered fused heterocyclic template...
The US administration is relaxing its approach to developing countries seeking affordable medicines during public health crises (Nature 402, 567; 1999). The move follows protests...
The Indian government has presented a bill to parliament proposing a law giving patent protection to new crop varieties for 15 years, but allowing applications to be rejected for varieties for which...

Week 48:

It is beyond belief that an application can proceed to grant with a title as bland as "Medicaments", but that is exactly what has happened to a case which GlaxoWellcome filed at the UK Patent Office...
It is interesting to note that Biotech inventions, now often the largest single section among the applications covered by Current Patents Gazette, are still relatively rare among European granted patents...
A milestone for the publicly funded international human genome consortium has been confirmed this week with the publication of the complete sequence of chromosome 22...
The sequencing centers which are part of the Human Genome Project (HGP) operate under the policy that all genomic DNA sequence information should be released immediately and freely in the public domain...

Week 47:

For the first time this week, in response to readers' suggestions, we are highlighting relevant European patents which have been granted. The majority of publications covered in the Gazette were filed as PCT...
Electrotransport drug delivery is the subject of Alza Corp's EP824342B, published originally as WO9634597; lidocaine and fentanyl are among the drugs for which...
Following the publication of seven Guilford applications in March (WO99116322, etc) describing novel polycyclic inhibitors of poly(ADP-ribose)polymerase (PARP), two more have now appeared...
Last week Genentech agreed to pay $200 million to settle a patent infringement lawsuit, over the alleged use of human growth hormone DNA taken 20 years ago from University of California in San Francisco...

Week 46:

p38 MAP kinase inhibitors are the target of applications from both Searle and Vertex this week. Vertex has collaborating with Kissei on the development of...
One of Merck's key research areas is 5alpha reductase inhibitors - antiandrogenic substances useful for the treatment of benign prostate hypertrophy, acne and hirsutism. After the launch of...
Four relatively new biotech companies feature in section D this week. The youngest is an Italian company named GenEra which was founded in 1998 as a spin-off from the gene therapy program of the San Raffaele Inst...

Week 45:

The antidepressant sertraline, recently the subject of a tetralone resolution case from the French company Catalys (EP947499), is now the subject of a rather similar application from the product's originator, Pfizer...
Last month, the European Patent Office held its annual EPIDOS patent information conference in Greece, one of the less developed countries in Europe in terms of...
Another rather complex example of international cooperation is seen in an application from WA Pharm (sometimes Wapharm) in Sweden. Three Latvian...
Corixa's acquisition of Anergen in January 1999 extended the company's immunotherapeutic expertise into autoimmune disease fields. This is evident...

Week 44:

Prominent in the news this week was the announcement that American Home Products Corp and Warner-Lambert are to merge and in the future will trade under the name of AmericanWarner Inc...
Although Merck has launched its selective cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor, rofocoxib, in several countries this summer, the company maintains its research for next-generation compounds. MK-663 was reported...
A number of young specialist companies feature again in this weeks Biotechnology Section. US-based Livercell claims a cell culturing method and medium for producing proliferated, normal, differentiated human liver cells...
Finally, for the overworked and stressed out there we have a US patent from an individual applicant claiming a composition used for achieving what the inventor calls "an alert, yet calm state"...

Week 43:

National news this week, in the UK at least, included yet another Viagra story, this time referring to the possibility that a treatment for female sexual dysfunction might reach the market within about three years...
Digital Biology is the subject of an interesting application which appears in Section D this week; DigiBio claims a method for amplifying the formation of ligand-receptor complexes. The method consists of...
Patent applications concerning manufacturing methods of compounds in clinical development are usually a reliable indicator of continued and sustained efforts by the applicants to bring these substances...

Week 42:

This week sees the publication of the first granted US patent of Shionogi BioResearch, covering bioreductive cytotoxic agents which may relate to SBR-170, the bioreductive alkylating agent...
Merck & Co and Banyu are co-developing the endothelin receptor antagonist L-753037 for the potential treatment of hypertension and heart failure. Despite being only in phase I trials...
A number of specialist companies feature in this week's Biotechnology section. Iconix Pharmaceuticals claims methods for identifying genetic determinants associated with modulation...
Finally, the US DHHS claims to have developed a method of determining a person's susceptibility to alcoholism or suicidal behavior by testing their saliva. In a US granted patent...

Week 41:

The consolidation of long running projects can be seen at the heart of several of this week's New Compounds cases. Merck has six applications covering antagonists of gonadotropin releasing hormone...
Chemicus, a drug discovery technology company based in Watertown, Massachusetts, have their first patent application published this week claiming the solid phase synthesis of organic compounds...
Connaught Laboratories, having initiated the first AIDS vaccine trial in Africa utilizing its ALVAC-HIV (vCP205) canarypox vaccine, continues its interest in the field...

Week 40:

Plants genetics may at first sight seem to have little relevance to pharmaceuticals, but two inventions of this type, from Pioneer Hi-Bred and DeKalb, are included in this week's biotech section. Genetic...
Rigel Pharmaceuticals of San Francisco has one of only three applications ever published to use the term "Toso" - one previous use of the word is in a Japanese application on the subject of sake, the fermented...
Bayer is seeking protection for a synthesis of valiolone, which may be used as an intermediate not only for its own acarbose antidiabetic, but also for another alpha-glucosidase inhibitor, Takeda's voglibose...
Scientists at Lundbeck, DuPont Merck and HMR are all turning their attention to the technology needed for combinatorial synthesis and screening programs. In the case of Lundbeck, it seems that chemists...

Week 39:

Alpha-Chem Advanced Pharmaceutical Industries (ACAPI), of Cairo is a rare example of an Egyptian company patenting internationally in the pharmaceutical sector, there being no PCT application in the field...
Similar territorial confusion surrounds an application from Oncopharm, whose claims to the synthesis of cephalotaxane derivatives come from a large team based entirely in France, traceable...
Pentafuside, previously known as T-20 peptide and DP-178, is a fusion inhibitor showing great promise as an HIV therapy. Claimed originally by a team at Duke University...
Zero-order release kinetics are a target for formulation technologists at Temple University in Philadelphia, whose annular dosage form is described as donut-shaped, but which must surely...
A number of relatively young small specialist Biotech companies feature in this week's Gazette. Planet Biotechnology founded in September 1994, is developing CaroRx, a SIgA monoclonal antibody...

Week 38:

Last week's comments on Hoechst's MDL-100907 caused our IDdb editorial colleagues to re-examine the status of this promising 5-HT2A antagonist, and its development stage is now...
New applicant names this week include Chiral Technologies, CIMAP and PFC Italiana. Philadelphia-based Chiral, claiming a process for separating chiral pyrimidine derivatives on a chiral polysaccharide...
Barely an issue of Current Patents Gazette goes by without mention of the "statin" class of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor, and this week is no exception. BMS is claiming a hypocholesterolemic...
Thalidomide seemed to be finished as a useful drug when its teratogenicity hit the headlines several decades ago, but it continues to be the subject of intensive research, and the steady flow of patents...

Week 37:

US Design Patents are not normally included in Current Patents Gazette, but there are two published this week in the name of Pfizer that are undoubtedly relevant to a pharmaceutical product...
The difficulties encountered in deciding exactly what to include in the Gazette are typified by WO9946258, which in strict technical terms seems to be a new invention, sharing no application or priority data...
The Hoechst invention referred to above is a definite case of unfortunate timing, since the specific product named is MDL-100907, a 5-HT2A receptor antagonist which showed excellent potential as a schizophrenia treatment. Appearance of a single-compound...
A confectionery company is claiming therapeutic benefit for chocolate bars at the same time as a pharmaceutical company is claiming plant for making chewing gum. Warner-Lambert's invention...

Week 36:

The all-important PCT applications were published a day late this week, bearing Friday's date, September 10th - could it be that WIPO was deliberately avoiding the use of Thursday's date, the dreaded 9.9.99?...
For the third time in a month there are claims this week to process technology suitable for synthesis of mevolinic acid type HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, the so-called "statins". Synthon BV...
Interesting combinatorial screening technology is described this week by two US specialists, Isis Pharmaceuticals and Lifespan Biosciences, using mass spectrometry...

Week 35:

A team based at the Roche Biosciences site at Palo Alto in California has claims to piperidinylmethylamines which act as muscarinic receptor antagonists. A previous candidate...
Pfizer too is embarking on a new project, with its first claims to compounds acting on the NHE-1 isoform of the Na+/H+ exchanger; until now BMS...
Four of the five Neurogen applications published this week relate to GABA receptor modulators, but two separate teams are seen...
A great deal of the process patenting in this week's Gazette is non-specific, referring to processes, intermediates and catalysts which could conceivably be relevant to pharmaceuticals...

Week 34:

It is ironic that this week should see the publication of an application from Turkey concerned with the manufacture of antibiotics. The Istanbul-based company Fako Ilaclari...
Freak typographical circumstances caused us to perpetuate a rather silly error in last week's Gazette, for which we apologize. In the Section A record for WO9941254 we erroneously reported Astra's synthesis of agents...
Another new mechanism (this time really new, we hope) is implied by an application from Icos Corp in which phosphodiesterase 10 polypeptides and polynucleotides...
A Yamakawa chemical process case seems to imply that one or more of Eisai's mixed-action ACE inhibitors, thought not to be in active development, is actually a live...

Week 33:

From India there are only a few dozen international patent applications each year relating to pharmaceuticals, and by far the most prolific applicant is Dr Reddy's Research Foundation, which has...
Whereas Ranbaxy's interest in manufacturing other companies' compounds is confined to products nearing patent expiry, Kuraray is seeking protection relevant to a Merck product...
Pfizer reports progress in the development of matrix metalloproteinase inhibitors suitable for treatment of osteoarthritis. However, new compounds seem not to be involved. Rather, the claims...
RPR has brought together a team from France, Belgium, Italy and Morocco to study the use of selenium compounds in Alzheimer's disease. This work is not entirely without precedent, in the sense...

Week 32:

Reports from the US indicate that the term of biotechnology patents is about to be adjusted. A bill recently approved by the House of Representatives...
A team at Schebo Tech, in Germany, has turned its attention to the BSE crisis that continues to generate inter-government friction throughout Europe...
The nutritional fringes of therapeutics feature in several other inventions, including an application from Calgene concerned with strawberry fruit...
Thirty-three applications filed at the UK Patent office between February and December 1998 form the basis for a single PCT...

Week 31:

We speculated last week that WO9937612 - `614 might finally reveal the new anxiolytic mechanism which Cerebrus reported two years ago. However, when the complete specifications...
The intertwined discovery activities of SmithKline Beecham and Roche were highlighted two weeks ago, in the context of the latter's claims in EP930302 to benzosulfone 5- HT6 antagonists...
CeNeS (pronounced CNS, we assume), based in Cambridge, UK, is known to be collaborating with King's College London in the development of morphine metabolites as analgesics. However...
Sepracor has no fewer than seven applications published this week, one relating to fusion proteins used in the identification of proteins conferring resistance to chemotherapeutic agents, but the remainder...
There are 31 US patents among the new publications included in the Gazette this week. Our search covers all potentially relevant patents with application dates up to three years old, a total of 286...

Week 30:

This week's new compound cases include three naming individuals rather than a company as applicant. An application claiming cytotoxic macrolides names a London-based patent attorney...
The specific morpholinol enantiomer claimed by Glaxo this week is a close analogue of the phase II norepinephrine uptake inhibitor 1555U88. As the number of this candidate suggests...
Several cases in Section B of Current Patents Gazette for Week 9928 required further analysis, but late arrival of specifications prevented the additional comments...
The serine protease inhibitor in WO9934789 is preferably a tPA inhibitor, especially AEBSF. The University of Utah's WO9934823 relates to angiotensin II and aldosterone inhibitors, Ro-42-5892...

Week 29:

Antivirals feature in several interesting publications this week. AuRx Inc of Baltimore, Maryland, previously known as AuroVax, claims an HSV-2 vaccine based on the live virus...
Of eight biomedical applications from China published this week, seven originate from the Shanghai Second Medical University. All relate to genes, identified...
During the past few months (See Current Patents Gazette for Weeks 9920 and 9925) we have commented on the arrival of new players in the 5-HT7 modulator field, and these included Roche. Now attention turns to the 5-HT6 receptor...

Week 28:

Two Japanese companies researching the use of adenosine receptor antagonists may be focusing on the same compound. An application from Eisai...
Plant extracts continue to provide a source of substances with therapeutic potential, and by chance this week there are two inventions relating to Aloe vera...
New and unusual applicants this week include the Italian company Newron Pharmaceuticals, apparently with links to the former Farmitalia (P&U) research site...
Two very long applications, each of more than 500 pages, appeared two weeks ago; both are from Takeda and relate to the same series of anilides...

Week 27:

Affymetrix has entered into an interesting three way collaboration, involving both the University of California and the French CNRS, targeting kinase inhibitors, and CDK2...
Further fundamental advances in combinatorial technology are reported in applications from teams of US and Swedish inventors, apparently filing independently, but in fact...
Among the eleven Chiron applications appearing in Section D, one is a joint application between Chiron and California-based Hyseq Inc...
Among the new compound cases, one naming MethylGene and the Wesleyan University as joint applicants stands out...

Week 26:

It has been a highly productive week for Alcon Laboratories with no less than 14 new applications...
An application from Lilly published this week is claims beta-lipotropin and its uses in the treatment of diabetes and associated complications...
As we pointed out in the last issue, hardly a week passes without new filings on the synthesis of taxanes. This week is no exception with an application from the Canadian company BCM Development Inc...
A joint application from the Interneuron subsidiary Progenitor and Vanderbilt University focuses on a lipase expressed in endothelial cells. Suggested uses for the disclosed polypeptides and...

Week 25:

The merger of French companies Sanofi and Synth?bo was completed in May and this week sees the first two patent applications to be published in the name of the new joint entity Sanofi-Synth?bo....
Boehringer Ingelheim and Shionogi both appear to be moving into new areas this week...
Inventors from Scripps Research Institute have filed their second application on antibodies, which can be used to catalyse aldol reactions...
Another important area for pharmaceutical chemists is taxane chemistry, or more specifically the synthesis of taxanes...
In the field of Biotechnology, Connaught Laboratories has an application regarding the constitutive expression of non-infectious HIV-like particles...

Week 24:

Glycomimetics are the target of a collaboration between Glycomed and Sankyo that gives rise to two new applications this week. The compounds claimed mimic...
Boehringer Ingleheim has two applications this week covering thio- and dithio- analogs of urethane which exhibit an inhibiting effect on cholesterol biosynthesis...
A process for the total synthetis of eleutherobin features in an application from Columbia University, New York. The compound, which has properties very similar to paclitaxel...

Week 23:

A healthy cigarette would appear to be a contradiction in terms, but that is what a Chinese inventor named Pu claims to have invented...
All three of PowderJect's research sites have contributed to an application in which transdermal delivery of particulate vaccines is claimed. Workers at Oxford...
One of PowderJect's collaborators, Chiroscience, has in the past successfully employed the strategy of identifying the more potent enantiomers...
A rather puzzling invention from Roche appears to be a purely electronic device. However, the inventors...
An interesting case is reviewed this week in Nature (399, 512). In 1990, the University of California filed a patent infringement lawsuit alleging that Genentech...

Week 22:

For the first time this week, the Gazette consists of five sections. As explained last week...
A key conceptin patent law is that the applicant must be able to demonstrate that the invention is useful; there is no requirement for an explanation of how the invention works...
The week's other chemical process cases include several concerned with combinatorial methodology, including one from former Wellcome chemists, now at Biofocus,...
The three-way collaboration between the Children's Medical Center, Harvard College andIon Pharmaceuticals yields four more patent applications...

Week 21:

Current Patents Gazette introduces a new section - all devices and equipment will be assigned to Section E...
Grand Caymanis the rather unlikely address cited by the applicant for a patent relating to a novel drug delivery device...
French inventors are named on an application from a New South Wales company, Medicine Quantale...
The distinctly odd term "lampbrush chromosome" is coined in an application from two Maryland-based inventors...
Scientists in Belgium and the US have collaborated to devise a new synthesis for pyrrolopyridines...
Truly European cooperation on 4-helix bundle cytokine specific receptors is published in an application from EMBL, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory...
Process development work by both Sanofi and Sumika involves 4'-methyl biphenyl derivatives, reminiscent of the substituents seen in losartan...

Week 20:

The 5-HT7 receptor was characterised during the early 1990s (see INSERM's WO9416067, for example), but has not yet become a popular target for the industry generally. Exceptions are Lilly and SB...
The notorious Partnership No 1, mentioned here in week 9916, is once more in evidence this week...
The applicant name RXH2O in plain upper-case characters conveys little meaning, and might even be taken to be a typographical aberration. Written as...
Cysteine cathepsin inhibitors are the subject of a Novartis invention, striking for the breadth of its origins. Of the 13-strong inventor team, three are based in Switzerland, and five...
Interdisciplinary work at Ben Gurion University has led to the development of microcircuits for performing analyses of multimolecular interactions and molecular syntheses...
Functional Genetics is one of several companies this week which seem to be new to international patenting, with an invention relating to screening...
Combinatorial scientists frequently borrow terminology from other disciplines, including words such as array, scaffold and library. It is interesting to see the reverse happening...

Week 19:

PDE IV inhibitors are the focus of three applications from Pfizer this week, two claiming new compounds derived from the replacement of catechol by an indazole bioisostere...
Following on from last week's joint application with Schering Corp disclosing naphthyl and azanaphthyl-4-(phenylmethyl)piperazines acting as selective dopamine D4 ligands, Neurogen now...
Zeaxanthin features twice among the week's Chemical Process cases, in applications from the Mexican company Bioquimex Reka, and from Roche....
SmithKline Beecham feature in two collaborative efforts among this week's Section B cases. The first involves a set of three joint applications with Ligand Pharmaceutical for zinc chelated G-CSF receptor ligands...

Week 18:

Ultrasound contrast agents are the subject of impending patent infringement litigation between two of the largest chemical companies in the US, DuPont and Mallinckrodt....
Thorough patent protection is also high on Glaxo's list of priorities for abacavir, the anti-AIDS product previously known as 1592U89, now at the registration stage. A novel chiral synthesis...
Roche has contrived to cause confusion with two pairs of cases displaying technical inconsistencies, all four applications originating from the former Boehringer Mannheim...
Melanocortin receptor ligands feature in an application from Trega Biosciences, whose MC agonist HP-228 entered...

Week 17:

Prominent among this week's Chemical Process cases are several covering aspects of process technology and devices. SensorChem has an application claiming...
Merck seems to be consolidating several projects this week with 8 applications referring to new compounds, all based upon previously established work....
Specialist companies have a large presence in this week's Biotechnology section. New Ohio-based Biocrystal claims a method for inhibiting metastasis and tumour cell growth...

Week 16:

Limited Partnership No 1 is the rather curious name used on a joint application filed by Boehringer Mannheim and SmithKline Beckman (sic), in which a method of treating Alzheimer's disease...
Meyer Laboratories of Fort Lauderdale in Florida was the acquisition that enabled Glaxo to make serious inroads into the US market for the first time in the 1970s. Now, twenty years later, the name Meyer...
Cambridge NeuroScience has a case focusing on enantiomers of various guanidines used in the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders. This Massachusetts-based specialist...
Immunology is a popular topic among this week's Biotech applications. Two focus on the immune response to viruses. City of Hope, claims CTL epitopes of human cytomegalo virus, and Pangaea...

Week 15:

PCT and European applications appeared as normal this week, but the publication of US patents dated April 13th has been delayed. This delay is due to adoption of a new SGML procedure...
Indeno[1,2-c]-, naphtho[1,2-c]- and benzo[6,7]cyclohepta[1,2-c]pyrazolesas protein tyrosine kinase inhibitors feature in two BASF applications...
Motorola, a company more often linked with telecommunications of various types, has a case relating to the detection of binding events on supported receptors. The Company has several thousand...
There is an international flavor among this week's biotechnology applications. One from the Brazilian agricultural company Embrapa, claims a process for obtaining transgenic leguminous plants...

Week 14:

Japanese companies feature this week in several examples of what might be termed technology exchange. A clear instance is the Warner-Lambert application...
Ajinomoto, on the other hand, seems to be taking an interest in renin inhibitors of the type originated by Abbott...
Moving microdroplets from the University of Michigan, laser capture microdissection from Arcturus Engineering, and chiral stationary phases from UOP are among the ancillary process technologies...
Four applications this week focus on HIV research from Kyowa, claims an isolated killer T-cell receptor...
Hematopoietic stem cellsare the subject of two publications. The first is from NeuroSpheresa Canadian company...

Week 13:

Revised procedures are now being used in producing Current Patents Gazette...
Neuropeptide Y antagonists feature in new compound cases from both Astra and Banyu....
A rather unusual casefrom Merck's Rahway site addresses the problem of removing contaminant metals, especially mercury, from soil; this Section C item appears under IPC classes...

Week 12:

Searle and Bayer by chance both have claims to novel cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) inhibitors...
Promising candidates from SB, Warner-Lambert and Boehringer Ingelheim are among the compounds covered by process claims this week. The quinolinecarboxamide SB-223412 is...
Unexpected uses of well-known substances are to be seen in inventions from Australia and Russia. Shark cartilage is known to contain effective angiogenesis inhibitors...
Australia was also the origin of Glaxo's influenza therapy, zanamivir, synthesised first by Biota. Now both Biocrystand Gilead are pursuing agents...

Week 11:

Pyrrolopyrrolones and pyrrolidines are the focus of Glaxo's attentions this week with three applications claiming these compounds as neutrophil elastase inhibitors with potential for bronchitis and...
A hitherto unknown company, Fleximer (based in San Leandro, California) has filed an application on an intriguing subject, hybrid composite articles comprising polymer whiskers to...
The ever-continuing questfor improved DNA sequencing techniques is evident again in this week's Biotechnology section. Thermostable DNA polymerases are the topic of two applications. Enzyco,...
Finally, last week,readers of Dana-Farber's WO9911281, describing the treatment of septic shock with G protein binding agents, may have been confused to find the main body of the text came from Louisiana State Univ...

Week 10:

The scientist involved in the UK Government's controversial pronouncements on genetically modified (GM) foods,Dr Arpad Pusztai, appears this week...
Another Aberdonian connection occurs in an application relating to an immortalized insulin-producing human b b-cellwhich may be rendered glucose-responsive...
Racehorse ailments,in particular muscular problems, are attracting attention in both hemispheres. Astacarotene of Swedenclaims the use of astaxanthin and...
Peppermint again features in a biotechnology invention from Washington State University...
Seven applications published this week are from Guilford Pharmaceuticals, on the subject of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors...

Week 09:

Merck & Co is named as applicant on 14 international applicationspublished this week, and on one of these Kyowa Hakkois a joint applicant. The claimed fermentation process...
Merck's other innovation includes the use of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitorsin prevention of coronary events, and the use of NK-1 antagonistsin premenstrual syndrome; the latter case...
Six applications name Lilly as applicant, and a seventh assigned to the US Governmentincludes an inventor apparently based on Lilly's research campus in Indianapolis. Lilly's principal...
New or unfamiliar applicant names appearing this week include such companies as Afferon, Aquila, ChoaandJanus...
Following the issue of IDUN Pharmaceutical's US5786173, which covers the apoptotic proteases caspase-8and caspase-10, an application this week discloses caspase-14...
Washington State Universityis exploring possible cancer treatments from an unusual source, with claims to the isolation of geranyl diphosphate synthase cDNA from peppermint...

Week 08:

The Picower Institute adopts an unusual strategy in two cases seeking protection for antivirals...
Clasto-lactacystin beta-lactone and its analogues, acting as proteasome inhibitors, are the subject of a non-assigned process case...
Du Pont has claimsto a new crystal form of an anthracenone derivative. This is DMP-543, now in phase II trials for Alzheimer's disease, acting as an acetylcholine release stimulator and...
Roche has found interesting neurological activityin compounds first synthesized almost 20 years ago by Ciba-Geigyas microbicides for agricultural use. The vinyl ethers...

Week 07:

Genetically modified (GM) foods have been in the national news headlines for some time now, at least in the UK. The dividing line between purely nutritional and therapeutic uses...
The Stehlin Foundation for Cancer Research, based in Texas, has claims to a process for manufacture of 9-nitrocamptothecin (9-NC). This topoisomerase...
Potassium features in several inventions, including a Cytran application in which peptides acting as potassium channel openers are claimed. This company...

Week 06:

Urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) antagonists were being researched by Boehringer Mannheim...
The leukocyte adhesion inhibitor collaboration announced by Athena and AHP in mid-1995 has yielded a series of eight applications covering a variety of small molecules acting as...
The neuropeptide Y5 receptor gene, claimed by Synaptic in US5602024 and by the Garvan Institute in WO9717440, is now implicated in control of circadian rhythmicity. BMS is claiming...
Abiogen Pharma, based in Rome, has two applications published this week describing abzymes, that is catalytic monoclonal antibodies. The inventors are apparently located at Istituto Gentili in Pisa; Merck took...
SB (US) has two broad cases concerned with the use of caspases in the therapy of a range of conditions associated with apoptosis. IDUN, collaborating with Novartis...
Baylor College has an application detailing the role of chicken ovalbumin upstream promoter-transcription factor I (COUP-TFI) in the central and peripheral nervous systems. Antagonists of this member...

Week 05:

Du Pont's interest in aggrecanase inhibitors, first given prominence in WO9718207, reaches a further stage with the publication of an application claiming the metalloproteinase aggrecan...
The University of Bradford is now collaborating with Generic Biologicals in the development of tamoxifen and its analogues. Having claimed crystallization of the preferred geometric isomer...
Telemedicine techniques, claimed last week by Abbott, are further explored by the Japanese company A&T Corporation. Here a clinical examination analyzer is described, by means of which data are collected...
Penaeid prawns were the source of the antimicrobial peptides claimed jointly by the French research institutions CNRS and IFREMER. The latter is the Institut Francais de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer...

Week 04:

Semaphorins appear to be an increasingly popular area of research. These chemorepellants which inhibit the growth of neurones, are thought to have diverse therapeutic applications, including...
RPR seem to be moving into new territory with seven applications claiming polyhydroxypyrazines useful in the prevention and treatment of diabetes and its complications, based on the work of two...
Telemedicine is the intriguing title of an application from Abbott this week. This publication describes the use of automated process and computer systems for test tracking analysis and reporting...
Life Technologies has claims this week to nucleic acid ladders, used as standards for estimating the size of nucleic acid molecules, in terms of numbers of base pairs...
Osteoporosis is among the conditions targeted by Roche this week are dihomo-seco-cholestane derivatives are described as possessing two unsaturated bones (sic), an entirely appropriate typographical error...

Week 03:

P&U has three applications for new compounds this week, two inventions from its Italian wing, while the third, covering antibacterial oxazolinones, originates in the US...
The first European application from Pharma Dessau was published this week. Dessau, with its roots in the former East German Impfstoffwerke Dessau-Tornau, holds...
Penick Corp hailing from Newark, New Jersey is another company previously unknown to us. This week the company has filed an application describing the preparation of opiates...

Week 02:

Schering Corp, originator of the successful antihistamine loratadine, is claiming polymorphs of its descarbethoxy metabolite, previously known as descarbethoxyloratadine (DCL)...
Alanex, now part of Agouron, entered into a collaboration with Novo Nordisk almost three years ago, aimed at using Alanex's combinatorial technology to identify potential antidiabetics. Glucagon antagonists...
Osiris Therapeutics of Maryland, specialising in antibody technology for human osteogenic and mesenchymal stem cells, has now enlisted two university researchers in Chile...
Pfizer has seven PCT applications published this week, four of them claiming novel dosage forms of sertraline. This 5-HT uptake inhibitor, now widely launched as an antidepressant, is in trials...
Patents relating to Glaxo Wellcome's BW-373U86 are now appearing in the name of Delta Pharmaceuticals of North Carolina, who this week...
Many people seem to have problems spelling the increasingly important word "millennium", and the appearance of incorrect variants on patent applications has been noted several times. An Irish company...

Week 01:

Texas University researchers are investigating the actions of magnolia extract derivatives, previously studied only as a herbal medicine in Japan and China. In traditional medicine...
Lilly quite often files separate applications at the European Patent Office, rather than include European countries as designations on a PCT application. An example is WO9900360...
Lilly continues to extend its programme of antithrombotics acting by Factor Xa inhibition, with four new applications...
It is a very productive week for Merck, with 6 applications covered in four Section A cases, one more in B and a further two in Section C describing the consolidation of existing research projects...
Immunex Corp continue their work on TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL), after having US5763223 which covers DNA encoding TRAIL, granted by the USPTO...



Disclaimer \| Terms of Use Privacy Policy \| Copyright	Home \| Contact Us \| About Us \| Press Room \| Products \| Customer Service Support \| Free Resources \| Site Map \| Careers