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Gazette Highlights News 2001 |
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Week
52:
- New Year greetings to our friends and customers are accompanied
by a deep sigh of relief, a consequence of our observation that
the number of PCT applications published during 2001 fell marginally
short of 100,000...
- The European and UK patent offices issued no documents on December
26th, but we took the opportunity to begin reviewing data for
the year...
- Paradoxical pharmacology is the rather puzzling title of an
application filed by Dr Richard Bond of Houston, Texas. However,
Bond is Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacological
and Pharmaceutical Sciences...
- Brazil has featured only rarely in the Gazette, there being
fewer than 20 inventions originating there during the past three
years. However a PCT application this week from S?Paulo based...
- GSK's patenting takes on a complex aspect this week, with applications
published as the result of both French and Australian collaborations.
Work on dry powder granulated formulations at the company's Terras...
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Week
51:
- The BMS ACE inhibitor fosinopril entered a period of extended
protection in the UK at the end of November, based on two Supplementary
Protection Certificates (SPCs) relating to EP53902B...
- An unmissable invention occurs among the December 13th US pre-grant
publications, and we cannot resist including here the title and
official abstract verbatim; if you wish to savor the biblical
quotations...
- On December 17 it was announced that Teva Pharmaceuticals had
won a court victory in a dispute over GSK's Augmentin patents.
The court ruled...
- Cascade Biochem Ltd. is involved in the development, manufacture
and supply of prostaglandins and related products for pharmaceutical
applications. The company also produces...
- Celltran appears to be a new company which was substantial invested
in by the White Rose Technology Seedcorn Fund in September 2000.
It will develop commercial applications...
- CathNet-Science's primary focus is vascular therapy with a strong
product line in interventional Cardiology and and interest in
neuroradiology. In a collaboration with CNRS...
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Week
50:
- US applications (pre-grant publications) were published on schedule
on December 13th , but there were problems with the USPTO's website
load...
- Roche's leuprorelin and a Schering AG microbubble composition
are the subject of UK Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs)
that entered into force...
- European granted patents this week include about 130 falling
within the present scope of our DOLPHIN database, which is undergoing
beta-testing...
- Rakepoll Holding BV of Amsterdam (or perhaps Rotterdam) has
a cluster of applications from a Milanese inventor relating to
methods of treatment involving a protein...
- And finally, the award for the most badly classified application
of the week goes to WO0193907. With IPCs A61K 39/395, A61P 37/08
and C07K 16/18, this first appeared...
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Week
49:
- Online Information 2001, the conference and exhibition that
took place in London's Olympia earlier this week, has indirectly
caused this issue of the Gazette to be delayed by a few
hours...
- Granted European patents this week include just over a hundred
falling within the scope of the Gazette, and one-third
of these have DOLPHIN records...
- Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs) have been granted
to Pharmacia for latanoprost (EP364417B) and to Schering Corp
for desloratadine...
- A Thai university and a French company join together to patent
a vaccine they have developed against the Dengue virus, but their
work is reflected by the appearance of two parallel European applications...
- GlaxoSmithkline excels this week with notice of 16 newly-filed
UK applications, mostly entitled simply "Chemical compounds".
The applicant name used predominantly...
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Week
48:
- Research Disclosure (RD) seems to be running about two weeks
behind its scheduled publication dates...
- Nisoldipine, Bayer's Sular, finally lost protection in the UK
at the beginning of November, on the expiry of a five-year supplementary
protection certificate,...
- Astron Clinica Ltd of Cambridge, UK, has an application relating
to a method and apparatus for measuring tissue histology. This
may well read on to Astron's Spectrophotometric Intracutaneous
Analysis (SIA)...
- On a similar theme, Nicholas Beechey-Newman, consultant at Guy's
and St Thomas's Hospital Trust in London, has an application claiming
a novel method of assessing breast duct epithelia...
- Cranfield University's work on prostate specific antigen (PSA)
is the subject of a new application involving thick film screen-printed
electrodes for detection, and Iceni BioDiscovery...
- Oxagen Ltd of Abingdon, UK, already has one PCT application
published (WO0162788) relating to inflammatory bowel disease (ibd),
specifically polynucleotides encoding...
- Basilea indicates that process development work is going ahead
on an antibacterial candidate dropped by Roche a year or so ago,
with claims to a synthesis of the vinylpyrrolidinone cephalosporin...
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Week
47:
- Fresenius AG has been granted an SPC in respect of EP298293,
a case entitled "Fat emulsion". The patent was originally due
to expire in June 2008, but protection will now extend...
- Glenn A Braswell is named as applicant on a PCT application
in Section B relating to deer's antlers, testosterone levels and
sexual dysfunction...
- Equally colorful, though not in the same way, is the innovation
disclosed by Professor Sumner Burstein in three applications relating
to the use of tetrahydrocannabinol derivatives...
- Generic drugs and established products abound in this week's
Gazette, especially among the process developments in Section
C. The targets include carvedilol...
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Week
46:
- A hundred or so European patents are granted each week with
possible relevance to the drug industry. Some of these have taken
ten years or more to reach...
- Until now there has been no simple way to identify the patents
which deserve attention, but now this is changing as the DOLPHIN
database comes on stream...
- Patents granted this week include several relating to recognized
drugs, usually in improved formulations, such as saquinavir (Isocell),
idebenone (Takeda), a risperidone prodrug (Janssen),...
- Protein chemistry and particle technology specialist Upperton
Ltd, based originally at the University of Nottingham, is seeking
protection for contrast agents...
- Disarmingly frank would be one way of describing the title given
to an application relating to treatment of migraine headache using
pseudoephedrine...
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Week
45:
- The Sanofi-Synth?bo sedative zolpidem has now entered an eight-month
period of extended protection under the terms of a UK Supplementary
Protection Certificate (SPC), following French...
- "Toxicity monitoring" could conceivably refer to technology
for measuring environmental pollution, but a little research indicates
that this initial UK patent application from Gentronix Ltd...
- Litigation issues featured in the press this week focus mainly
on generic drug disputes. Takeda is taking action on pantoprazole
against AHP and Byk Gulden...
- Ciprofloxacin continues to attract attention, now because of
the Brazilian government's renewed effort to force price reductions
from suppliers of anti-HIV drugs...
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Week
44:
- Israel's Teva Pharmaceutical Industries has entered into a new
legal wrangle in the US with Schwarz Pharma for alleged patent
infringement of its hypertension drug, Univasc. Teva has recently
applied...
- An old favorite rears its head among the European Grants this
week as Lilly's EP664121B, filed December 1993, claims the use
of raloxifene and its analogs in the treatment of atherosclerosis
and...
- The flood of SPC activity continues, with Pliva's azithromycin
entering its period of extended protection, and the grant of Certificates
to RPR (now Aventis) for quinupristin and to Pharmacia for...
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Week
43:
- Fresenius Kabi could not possibly have known in April 2000,
when filing two applications relating to formulations of ciprofloxacin,
that the name of the antibacterial...
- "Antihistaminic compounds" is the terse title of an application
which seems at first sight to originate from afirm of patent agents
based in London. However, anyone following the fortunes...
- The last week of September 1981 witnessed a remarkable sequence
of applications filed at the European Patent Office in relation
to potential drugs which later acquired commercial significance...
- Several UK initial applications this week relate to devices
for respiratory applications. Arakis has filed...
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Week
42:
- Anthrax concerns are generating further debate on governments'
powers to override patents, following the raising of similar issues
earlier in the year in the context of AIDS treatments. Although
certain penicillins...
- QXYZ is also an interesting string to search for on the internet,
and again there is an Indian connection. Hidden among several
hundred references to obscure mathematics and PC-incompatible...
- Among this week's granted European patents are several extending
and broadening the coverage of established products and candidates.
Lilly's olanzapine, a dibenzodiazepine structural analog...
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Week
41:
- EPIDOS 2001 and PATINNOVA, held at the Cardiff International
Arena, coincide with this issue of the Gazette...
- Ortho's COX2 inhibitor tepoxalin is the subject of an application
for a supplementary protection certificate (SPC), based on the
November 1993 grant of EP248594B and the drug's...
- Two scientists working for the Imperial Cancer Research Fund
(ICRF) have been named as winners of the 2001 Nobel Prize for
medicine, alongside a worker at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research
Center...
- An appeals court in the US has reinstated Genentech's US4601980
(one of several US patents in the family of WO8100114) covering
a method for producing recombinant human growth hormone...
- Babraham bio-incubator company Acaris Healthcare Solutions this
week gives notice of its intention to establish an intellectual
property portfolio...
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Week
40:
- The nicotinic alpha7 receptor story we featured here three weeks
ago (CPG 0137 Highlights) goes a stage further this week. We originally
noted fundamental work at the University of Colorado,...
- The statin antihypercholesterolemics are a favorite target for
process development chemists, but often it is not the originator
supplying the innovation...
- Serotonin modulators with considerable potential as generics
are also in the news. Richter Gedeon has claims to a new carbazole
derivative useful in the synthesis of ondansetron...
- Two merger announcements have been made during the past week,
following news of the Tanabe/Taisho merger two weeks ago. Reference
to our forthcoming Drug Patents 2001 book...
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Week
39:
- Predictably, the March 13th UK approval for AHP's sirolimus,
formerly known as rapamycin, has now given rise to an application,
within the 6-month deadline, for a Supplementary Protection Certificate
(SPC)...
- We note first public details of an invention entitled "assay
method" in the names of two individuals, on a UK initial application
due for publication in February 2003. It turns out that...
- False inventor trails are all to easy to find, but there is
one this week which is quite unambiguous, leading from the University
of Massachusetts Lowell via California...
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Week
38:
- Zentaris appears for the first time as applicant on a PCT application
describing novel LHRH antagonists. In reality however the company
is far from new, being the specialist...
- Sertraline, paclitaxel, docetaxel, citalopram, gemifloxacin,
clarithromycin and omeprazole are among the rich harvest of established
products featuring in process patents...
- In contrast Cipla, the Indian manufacturer of generic drugs,
gives early notice of interest in oxazolidinone antibacterials,
in an initial UK application...
- Taisho and Tanabe have announced during the past week their
plans to merge, and we have extracted from our past data mining
publications a comparative view of their patent portfolios. When
profiled in 1997...
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Week
37:
- Bayer provides some food for thought this week, both in its
own patenting and implicitly also in that the Indian generics
manufacturer Ranbaxy. Among Bayer's PCT applications is one entitled...
- AstraZeneca shows signs of adjusting its chemokine receptor
targets, in a PCT application describing novel CCR5 modulators.
The claimed fused nitrogen heterocycles are very broadly defined...
- The nicotinic alpha7 receptor, with potential in schizophrenia,
featured in WO9920757, which names two inventors based at the
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center's Center for Schizophrenia
Research...
- European granted cases this week include Chinoin's EP788349B,
with claims to a liposome formulation of selegiline, the MAO inhibitor
which it originated in the early 1960s. Companies currently developing...
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Week
36:
- Thursday 6th was a public holiday in the Geneva canton. Please
note that September 7th is the official PCT publication date,
but the Gazette is only a few hours late...
- The Paris Convention of 1883 allows applicants filing iiabroadls
to claim priority from a domestic application filed up to 12 months
previously. When an applicant claims priority...
- AstraZeneca has achieved grant very rapidly for EP1025088B,
a farnesyl protein transferase inhibitor case first published
as WO9920611. Typically in this field it takes five or six years
from priority...
- Merck indirectly draws further attention to AstraZeneca in two
cases claiming crystalline forms of carbapenem side chain intermediates.
There have been numerous candidates...
- The routine appearance of Dabur Research Foundation's WO0164709,
serves as a reminder that the US system can on occasions result
in rapid issue of a patent originating abroad. Dabur is now claiming...
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Week
35:
- AstraZeneca has eased the path for the development of generic
versions of Prilosec (omeprazole) announcing on Tuesday that it
will not list a third newly acquired US patent in the FDA Orange
Book...
- Elsewhere, Roche and the Brazilian Government are back in talks
in a further attempt to agree a reduced price for anti-AIDS drug
Viracept (nelfinavir). Last week, Brazil's health minister...
- Paclitaxel (Taxol) and its derivatives feature in four chemical
process cases, three of them from Korean companies. The exception
is a US patent from NaPro Biotherapeutics, claiming selective
functionalization...
- NASA's Jet propulsion Laboratory is the subject of an unlikely-sounding
link with one of this week's chemical synthesis platform cases.
The Microdevices Laboratory at the Californian space research
center...
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Week
34:
- Anti AIDS drug nelfinavir appears to have run into trouble in
Brazil this week with the country's health minister threatening
to strike down a key patent covering the drug following failed...
- As long ago as 1998, moved by the high cost of AIDS-fighting
drugs, Brazil's government decided to analyze trademarked drugs
and produce its own generic antiretroviral drugs...
- Disclosure of sequence data in biotechnology publications is
becoming a weighty problem for us here at Current Patents. Following
on the heels of Hyseq's mammoth 9,500 page...
- Zetatronics was mentioned here two weeks ago as the originator
of an initial UK patent application relating to improved apparatus
for analysis of microbiological material. Now this...
- More than the usual number of platform technology cases feature
in Section C of this week's Gazette, some with interesting
cross-sector links...
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Week
33:
- Publication is a few hours late again this week, partly because
Wednesday 15th was a public holiday in several European countries...
- "Novel preparation" is the non-committal title of a UK initial
patent application filed by Regma Biotechnologies Ltd, but given
the youth and specialization of that London-based company...
- News of a likely FDA approval from Amgen this week draws attention
to a classic so-called submarin, patent which surfaced
a few months ago. The product is anakinra,...
- AstraZeneca workers at the company's Loughborough site have
seven applications published this week which give rise to another
technical curiosity. Even though there are seven documents...
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Week
32:
- Dr Frans Merkus of the University of Leiden is named as the
applicant for a UK Supplementary Protection Certificate, in respect
of EP349091 (SPC/GB01/029); the application was triggered...
- Azetidine, that modest N-heterocycle, for some reason features
in several applications published this week. An AstraZeneca team
in Sweden...
- Clues to the identity of several items of platform technology
are also to be found among this week's process chemistry applications.
Nanosyn of California describes non-redundant split/pool synthesis...
- Granted European patents include an inhalation device from AstraZeneca
(EP799067B, first published as WO9619253), and three Schering
Corporation non-chlorofluorohydrocarbon...
- Zetatronics (a sister-company of Current Patents) has an initial
UK application filed on June 15th entitled simply "improved apparatus".
Applications published to date by this University of Hatfield
spin-off...
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Week
31:
- The week's PCT output is dominated by 64 applications in the
name of Human Genome Sciences, the majority entitled "Nucleic
acids, proteins and antibodies". Craig Rosen is an inventor throughout...
- A SmithKline Beecham licensing deal dating back six years re-surfaces
this week as the lapsing of a Supplementary Protection Certificate
is reported. SB licensed the fibrinolytic anistreplase...
- Fluoxetine, the Lilly antidepressant Prozac, is the subject
of a July 27th judgement in favour of the Indian generics manufacturer
Dr Reddy's. In essence, Dr Reddy's succeeded in persuading the
District Court...
- The Israeli firm FineTech has developed a novel process for
manufacture of latanoprost, the Pharmacia glaucoma therapy. FineTech
was recently acquired by International Specialty Products...
- Ophthalmologicals also feature in this week's output of granted
European patents. Alcon has succeeded in obtaining protection
for ocular use of the dibenzoxepine olopatadine, Kyowa's Patanol,...
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Week
30:
- Cipla, already with published applications relating to a process
and a formulation for omeprazole, has now filed a UK initial application
to an S-omeprazole inclusion complex. AstraZeneca...
- Other generic companies declaring an interest in successful
products this week include Norpharma (citalopram), Carlsbad Technology
(omeprazole, lansoprazole), Noven...
- By coincidence, granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF)
is the subject of granted European patents from both Amgen and
Roche. The two companies are long term collaborators...
- Boehringer Mannheim is also the originator of another granted
European patent this week, this time issuing in the name of Novuspharma.
Novuspharma is a product of the 1998 acquisition by Roche...
- Nefiracetam (DM-9384) can be seen at the heart of a patent granted
to Daiichi this week. Having taken almost ten years to achieve
grant, EP515866B claims the use of...
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Week
29:
- Sildenafil, never out of the news for long, is the focus of
an application in which Pfizer claims use of cGMP PDE inhibitors
for treatment of diabetic ulcers...
- Buenos Aires is the source of seven PCT applications concerned
with combined diffusion/osmotic pump drug delivery systems, but
because Argentina is not yet party...
- Resolution Chemicals Ltd has a UK initial application for a
prostaglandin synthesis filed jointly with Cascade Biochem Ltd
(formerly Chiral Organics Lts). Cascade, with research...
- Manchester-based Intercytex Ltd, founded only in 1999, has an
initial application to stem cells, following the earlier publication
of WO0049137 relating to pluripotential cells; stroke, heart...
- We note also that Pharmacia has filed an application in the
UK for a Supplementary Protection Certificate for the oxazolidinone
antibacterial linezolid...
- Merck's Proscar (finasteride) is the subject of EP674521B, granted
this week, almost exactly seven years after its first appearance
as WO9414452; a method of treating prostatitis...
- Pseudopolymorphic forms of efeletirizine are claimed in EP1034171B,
granted rapidly after itsinitial appearance as WO9928310...
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Week
28:
- Dopamine D4 receptor ligands are the focus of a substantial
series of new compound PCT applications from H Lundbeck A/S this
week, though it is clear that some of the compounds have serotonin
action...
- An application from Ferring BV has served to bring to light
a hitherto overlooked footnote on the company's web page for its
research site at Chilworth in the UK...
- Joint applications this week include what may be the first from
the five-year-old collaboration between Merck Frosst and Axys,
based on the latter's acquisition of Khepri...
- Therapeutic switching is the stated focus of Arachnova Therapeutics
Ltd, and two initial UK applications entiteld "New therapeutic
use" indicate that the company's SwitchBase database has now...
- As BMS awaits judgement in important opposition proceedings
concerning a key taxol case (EP584001B), Aventis has a patent
granted covering taxane class derivatives...
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Week
27:
- Research Disclosure is a monthly journal containing disclosures
of inventions which the inventor wishes to be free to use, but
for one reason or another has decided not to patent. From this
week,relevant pharmaceutical and biotech disclosures from the
journal are included...
- Oxazole and oxadiazole hydroxamic acids are claimed by Pfizer
as inhibitors of procollagen C-proteinase (PCP or pCP). Fundamental
work on this enzyme...
- European patents granted this week include EP842661B from Pfizer,
with claims to the use of a class of naphthalene and isoquinoline
estrogen modulators in treatment of atherosclerosis...
- BioVector Solutions Ltd has an initial UK application relating
to soluble polymer systems for drug delivery. Though the name
may sound familiar, this is in fact the first patenting from a
firm spun off at the end of 1999 from the School of BioMedical
Sciences at the University...
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Week
26:
- Hints to the identity of a new lead compound in a series of
AstraZeneca analgesics may be found amongst this week's new compound
cases. A cluster of three new PCT applications can be seen in
Section A...
- The work of "translationally challenged" Shanghai Bio Road Gene
Development is in evidence again this week. In recent months the
company has produced a multitude of applications relating to polypeptides...
- UK initial applications contain a mixed bag of inventions this
week. Two hospital doctors, one at Hemel Hempstead General Hospital
and the other at the Kenezy Teaching Hospital in Debrecen, Hungary,
who...
- Errata: It seems that the Gremlins managed to get loose again
at Current Patents last week. A rather...
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Week
25:
- It's a bumper week for new chemical entity patenting in Section
A of the Gazette with no less than 58 publications covered in
45 cases. BMS has five applications; three covering aminothiazole
based CDK...
- Also in Section A can be found a series of three PCT applications
from Cubist Pharmaceuticals, disclosing their novel antibacterial
daptomycin analogs. The company has licensed daptomycin from Lilly...
- Eon Labs Manufacturing and Mylan Laboratories have both received
approval to market generic lovastatin, marketed as cholesterol-lowering
treatment Mevacor, in the US. The US product patent expired...
- Brivudine, a chemical analog of Yamasa's discontinued sorivudine,
is the subject of an Italian priority application from Menarini
and its subsidiary Berlin-Chemie, initially filed in January 2001...
- The work of entrepreneurial inventor, Peter Chown, whose company
Breakthrough Innovations Group was set up to exploit his inventions,
can also be seen in three UK priority applications this week,
focussing on...
- COBALZ II is part of a series of studies at Wrexham Maelor Hospital
led by Dr Andrew McCaddon to investigate the hypothesis that Vitamin
B12 deficiency contributes to the development of Alzheimer's...
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Week
24:
- According to esp@cenet
there are already several thousand patent documents ...
- GSK is known to be collaborating with Cambridge University in
antibiotics research and the first joint priority applications
appear to be have been filed in April. The joint applicants are
SB and...
- In what appears to be its first UK initial application, Diagnology
Ltd describes a "System for monitoring the health of a patient".
The Belfast-based company, founded in 1995, is focused...
- The International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology,
based in Trieste, seems to file its priority applications in the
UK. The latest relates to a soluble protein from malaria parasite...
- In November 1997, the University of Ulster received a research
grant from the British Diabetic Association to investigate engineering
immortal human insulin-secreting cells for studies of...
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Week
23:
- Breaking news as we go to press concerns BMS and its acquisition
of Du Pont Pharma. Reference to Current Patents' forthcoming Drug
Patents 2001 quickly reveals that BMS ranked 15th and Du Pont
33rd...
- The US PGP (pre-grant publication) program has been in effect
for only a few months, and during that time has yielded very few
drug-related applications. An example occurs this week however...
- Easter holidays, approximately six weeks ago, may not at first
sight seem relevant to patent publications this week. However,
a sharp decline in patent filings during that period is reflected
in an unusually small number of "A0" notifications in the current
UK Patent Office Official Journal....
- Following on from its earlier case concerning amino acid particles
(WO0033811), Vectura has two UK initial applications claiming
formulations for use in inhalers...
- Clusters of chemical process cases from AstraZeneca, E Merck,
Teva and Takeda are a feature of this week's PCT applications.
AZ is claiming basic adsorption technology for sample storage,
but also...
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Week
22:
- Process chemistry with possible implications for manufacturers
of generic drugs is revealed this week in applications from Hungary
and Korea. Zolpidem, the Synthelabo sedative/anxiolytic, is the
focus for EGIS...
- Granted European patents this week include several offering
strengthened protection for established products, typically from
the respective originators. These include Lilly...
- Arakis Limited, whose initial UK application revealed this week
is entitled "The treatment of respiratory diseases", is
described as a small virtual pharmaceutical company. Two international
applications...
- An unusually explicit UK initial application from April 6th
names three individual inventors, and relates to the use of various
phenanthrolines and benzoquinolines in cystic fibrosis. There
is a long term inventor...
- Stop Press: In late breaking news that reached us just prior
to going to press, it appears that the EPO have revoked a key
biotechnology patent assigned to Roche. Exact details are unclear
at the moment but...
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Week
21:
- Ascension Day holidays in Europe result in Friday 25th being
the formal publication date for this week's PCT applications,
so that the Gazette is inevitably appearing a day late.
Add to that the coincidence...
- Synaptica Ltd has an initial UK application covering screening
assays for the a7 nicotinic receptor....
- Obscure titles and uninformative abstracts are all too common
on the new applications we scan each weekfor the Gazette.
However, it is refreshing to see the Indian company Ranbaxy...
- The current preoccupation with the occurrence of deep vein thrombosis
on long haul flights is reflected in several UK initial applications
this week. Avia Medical has a device for exercising the lower
limbs...
- New names to patenting include Astex Technology, set up in December
1999 by two Cambridge University academics and the former head
of Bioinformatics with GlaxoWelcome, and NextGen Sciences...
- Futura Medical Ltd, situated on the Surrey Research Park, is
developing a topically applied treatment for male erectile dysfunction,
due to enter phase III trials...
- This week sees batches of "compound" applications from both
GSK (in the names of either Glaxo Group or SmithKline Beecham)
and Novartis. However, Roche and GSK...
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Week
20:
- An important US court case revolving around Losec (omeprazole),
AstraZeneca's best selling ulcer drug, has been postponed yet
again, it was announced earlier this week. The company is vigorously
trying...
- Prominent among this week's new product cases are an epic collection
of 12 PCT applications from SB claiming a range of cysteine protease
inhibitors, particularly effective against cathepsin K...
- Elsewhere in the field of Biotechnology, Millennium Pharmaceuticals
appears to be involved in a productive collaboration with Univ
California that has given rise to eight new disclosures relating
to...
- Finally this week, Pfizer has a variety of claims to inhibitors
of apolipoprotein B secretion and MTP with a European application
disclosing new 7-[(4'-trifluoromethyl-biphenyl-2-carbonyl)amino]-
quinoline-3- carboxylic acid amides and a further...
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Week
19:
- Novartis has been very much in the news over the past few days,
initially for its 20% shareholding purchase in Roche, but more
recently for an announcement that discounted Glivec is to be made
available...
- Last Friday, Genentech announced the decision of the jury in
the trial which began on April 16 in which GlaxoSmithKline alleged
infringement of four of its US patents by Genentech's trastusumab
and rituximab...
- Two US senators were due to introduce legislation this week
to renew the policies, due to expire at the end of this year,
that encourage testing of drugs for their potential to help children...
- UK initial applications this week include the first from Arachnova,
with the unsurprising title "New therapeutic use". This virtual
pharmaceutical company was set up to exploit its SwitchBase(TM)...
- The Lewisham Hospital NHS trust appears to have filed its first
UK application, covering a selective medium for vancomycin-resistant
enterococci. Three new companies have emerged in the UK...
- Companies new to patenting this week also include Cytotools
GmbH in Darmstadt, concerned explicitly with apoptosis modulation,
and Sequoia Sciences Inc in California. The latter has a PCT application...
- Merck & Co stands out among companies claiming new compounds,
with a series of six PCT applications covering NMDA antagonists.
It is now clear that Merck's strategy...
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Week
18:
- From the US comes the news that AstraZeneca, not totally unexpectedly,
has received six months' exclusivity in the US for omeprazole
for use in children. In effect this extends the patent life...
- Following the merger of Wellcome and Glaxo, patent applications
continued to be filed naming Glaxo Group as the applicant. Similarly,
since the GlaxoSmithKline merger...
- In March 2001 Roche agreed to extend funding for a joint project
with Vernalis on 5HT2C agonists as appetite suppressants for the
treatment of obesity...
- Antiproliferative agents are the subject of an application from
what appears to be new company, EPX Research...
- Interesting titles of UK applications from individual inventors
include a dispensing device (Stephen W Clarke), monitored dosage
apparatus...
- Shanghai Bio Road Gene Development, a company that sometimes
appears as Shanghai Bio Door Gene Technology...
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Week
16:
- A rather unusual, if not unique, situation has arisen in respect
of the monoclonal antibody trastuzumab. Approved for marketing
by Roche as Herceptin in August 2000, it is now the subject of
two applications...
- Initial applications filed at the UK Patent Office in early
March included one from Cambridge Antibody Technology relating
to eotaxin antibodies, possibly relating to CAT-231, and another
from Cell Pathways...
- Closer inspection of Janssen's WO0122938 and Knoll's WO0123362
(in CPG0114) seems to indicate that the two companies have an
interest in very similar HIV antiviral derivatives...
- Pfizer has nine applications published this week, four of them
relating to sildenafil-type phosphodiesterase inhibitors, with
potential in sexual dysfunction. The emphasis however...
- Thursday April 19 th 2001 may be a date of lasting significance
for the pharmaceutical industry, since it saw out-of-court settlement
of the case brought by 39 major drug companies against the South
African Government...
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Week
15:
- Five US applications are included in this week's Gazette,
the most covered to date but this includes several cases which
just missed inclusion last week such as a pair of virtually identical
documents...
- Among UK initial filings is one entitled "Detection method"
from Conidia Bioscience; the generic term conidia refers to spores
produced by fungi, which is presumably the core business...
- Further insights into the growing controversy surrounding the
sale of AIDS drug cocktails to the developing nations can be found
in this week's Nature (Nature 410, 615; 2001). Meredith
Wadman...
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Week
14:
- There are potential clues, possibly the first, to the identities
two relatively new developmental targets in evidence from both
Bayer and Serono this week. In a cluster of six applications covered
in Section A, three...
- Among the A0 applications listed in this week Official Journal
from the UK Patent Office are several cases of potential interest.
'Pak-Gep construct' is the unusually forthcoming title of an application
filed by Glaxo...
- A poignant interview with the chairman of Bombay-based Cipla,
Yusuf Hamied, by K S Jayaraman (New Scientist 2284, 42;
2001), relates Hamied's motivation behind offering cheap copies
of patented...
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Week
13:
- Five applications from AstraZeneca indicate that interesting
candidates are beginning to emerge from a collaboration on aurora-2
kinase inhibitors, begun with Sugen in 1998. The latter's fundamental...
- Generic companies betray interest in established products in
several applications. The Italian company Archimica is claiming
a more environmentally sound variant of the ritonavir synthesis...
- PolyMASC Ltd of London, whose peptide pegylation is the subject
of frequent press releases and agreements, has pursued to grant
in Europe a series of four applications on this technology filed...
- Of 24 US applications published this week, three have subject
matter potentially relevant to the Gazette. However, all three
are non-original, having been filed initially between January
1994 and April 1998...
- A news brief found in Nature LabScene UK (Nature 410,
2001) examines the recently released guidelines on gene and gene
sequence patenting from the US Patent and Trademark Office...
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Week
12:
- AstraZeneca announced this week that a fourth US patent relevant
to omeprazole has been listed for publication in the FDA Orange
Book, to add to the three announced last week. This latest...
- These moves come as the basic patent protection for omeprazole
begins to disappear, and generic drug manufacturers start to prepare
low-cost alternatives. Among these is the Indian manufacturer
Cipla...
- Glaxo has nine initial UK applications filed at the beginning
of February, of which six entitled "Compounds" seem to constitute
a series. At the other extreme there is an application filed by...
- AstraZeneca seems to be making rapid progress with its LEF opioid
modulator, a tetrapeptide analgesic now in phase II trials...
- SmithKline Beecham has a further process case relevant to cyano-substituted
cyclohexanes with PDE-IV inhibitory action, such as cilomilast,
first claimed early in 1992 (WO9319749). This is the latest of
several...
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Week
11:
- The USPTO this week published its first batch of 47 applications
under the terms of the American Inventors' Protection Act 1999,
effective from November 29th 2000. Five of these fell within the
broad...
- LG Chemical of Korea, whose gemifloxacin naphthyridine antibacterial
is licensed to SmithKline Beecham, links up with an apparently
new legal entity, SB Puerto Rico Inc, to apply for two process...
- All five GSK initial UK applications referred to have unhelpful
titles, deliberately so, no doubt. More explicit is a case from
the Spanish natural product specialist PharmaMar...
- Candidates progressing well in development are identifiable
in several of this week's applications, thought the applicant
is not always the company now associated with the product. An
example is the phase I...
- In the current issue of Nature (410, 289; 2001) it is
reported that, due to mounting public pressure, Merck will provide
developing countries with Crixivan...
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Week
10:
- Thirty-five provisional applications filed at the US Patent
and Trademark Office during September 1999 form the basis for
a remarkable application this week from SmithKline Beecham...
- Mystery surrounds an application from Spirogen Ltd, a UK-based
applicant seeking to protect cyclopropylindole derivatives. Though
the inventors are located in the Midlands at Nottingham University...
- News broke on March 1st , just as CP Gazette 0109 was
going to press, that two US-based drug companies were becoming
entangled over patent rights in the Delaware District Court. Pharmacia
Corporation...
- A News Brief by David Dickson (Nature 410, 3; 2001) addresses
the recent announcement by the Bush administration that it would
not interfere in developing countries' efforts to make generic
versions...
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Week
09:
- Among UK initial applications filed during the third week of
January was a cluster of four entitled "Biologically active compounds"
from a new Cambridge-based company, Incenta...
- Confusion or disagreement could underlie the odd situation noted
in the simultaneous appearance of European and PCT applications
covering analytical methodology, variously described...
- For sheer number of applications on a series of related topics
the reader is directed to the electrotherapy applications listed
in the new Section F, where Cardiac Pacemakers...
- On 23 February, Novartis announced the results of an oral hearing
at the EPO on matters relating to the opposition to Novartis'
EP663916 by American Home Products. The Opposition board...
- Several European patents covering biotechnology that have been
pending since 1990/1991 have been granted this week. EP520843
to the acid sphingomyelinase gene and its use in the diagnosis
of Niemann-Pick...
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Week
08:
- The UK is one of a few patent-issuing authorities to publish
information about applications at the time they are filed. Cognoscenti
refer to this as "A0" information...
- The current UK Official Journal (Patents) lists "A0" applications
filed on January 8th - 12th, and includes a conspicuous series
of nine originating from Kingston University, near London; these
probably lead on from...
- Granted patents from the European Patent Office this week include
EP725825B from Polymun Scientific Immunobioligische Forschung
GmbH...
- Patents in a genetic age? As the human genome sequence goes
public, Martin Bobrow and Sandy Thomas ask whether the present
patent system will spur innovation or become a barrier to medical
progress...
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Week
07:
- AstraZeneca has an implied interest in two PCT applications
published this week. Claims from PFC Italiana of Milan refer to
lysine-carboxyanhydride intermediates destined for the production
of lisinopril...
- Phosphodiesterase inhibitors are more than usually in evidence
in this week's process patenting, with an application from Warner-Lambert
and two from SB; in addition there is a method-of-use application...
- Marimastat, the pioneering British Biotech metalloproteinase
inhibitor was finally abandoned this week after phase III clinical
trials failed to show any benefit over placebo in small cell lung
cancer (SCLC)...
- Glaxo too seems to be revisiting some discarded candidates in
its search for useful EP4 receptor ligands. The candidates now
being screened apparently include AH-6809...
- St Valentine is long since dead, but we suspect he has influenced
the publication of this week's Gazette. Nothing from WIPO
in Geneva has arrived in London...
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Week
06:
- "Method for processing milk" is the rather unpromising title
of a patent issued to BioSante Pharmaceuticals Inc, at first sight
involved in food production. However, closer inspection...
- A bulky 2536-page document from the European Patent Office corresponds
to a dozen PCT specifications published simultaneously in the
name of Helix Research Institute of Chiba...
- GD Searle provides another procedural puzzle, in the form of
a PCT application which has taken virtually two years to achieve
publication - whereas of course it should have appeared after
18 months or so...
- A letter to Nature (409, 558; 2001) from Dr Terry Nicholls
of the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry
is entitled "Changing patent laws could be a healthy move to combat
resistance"...
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Week
05:
- Merck & Co, for the second time, has enlisted the help of the
Swiss process development specialist Lonza to scale up production
of pyridyl-type COX-2 inhibitors. The original...
- Genentech's platform technology portfolio is boosted by the
grant, after almost ten years in the pipeline, of EP724639B, which
originally appeared in October 1992 as WO9217566. The claims are
to...
- Colesevelam hydrochloride, marketed by Geltex as CholestaGel,
is one of the cross-linked polyallylamine polymers cited by Dow
Chemical Corp in an application with claims to a synthetic...
- BioChem Pharma announced the issue this week of a US patent
covering its AIDS cocktail of lamivudine in combination with other
antiviral agents. US6180639 covers a method of treating HIV...
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Week
04:
- Stem cell research has been in UK national headlines this week,
as the result of a House of Lords vote which overwhelmingly approved
measures to allow research on cells taken from human embryos...
- BMS and Schering-Plough are among the multinationals this week
with "hidden" inventions. An application from Cytoclonal Pharmaceuticals
of Dallas, Texas claims a technique...
- In a ruling last Friday, 19 January in the US District Court
of Massachusetts, Dynepo TM , a human erythropoietin developed
by Aventis and Transkaryotic Therapies (TKT) and for which...
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Week
03:
- US patents issued on January 9th but made available late on
the USPTO website are included in this week's Gazette.
The January 16th patents were however available on schedule...
- An unexpected link is revealed this week between UBE Industries,
the Japanese chemical manufacturer and AstraZeneca. The latter's
tricyclic antipsychotic quetiapine...
- Two past errors came to light in the course of carrying out
the analysis for the 353 inventions covered by this week's Gazette:
A US patent issued to Merck & Co on the subject of indinavir synthesis
seems...
- If accidents happen in threes, we are still looking for the
third. Subscribers have been kind enough not to point out that
CPG0102 was sent out with an incorrect date on the front page...
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Week
02:
- Formats have changed at the USPTO, and that has apparently caused
more problems for the computers in Crystal City, or wherever,
than it did for some of the commercial hosts - the PIUG bulletin
board...
- The "Viagra" dispute between Lilly and Pfizer is further highlighted
by the publication of a UK application, GB2351663A in the name
of Lilly Icos. Entitled...
- Compilation errors at WIPO have been hinted at several times
recently, in the context of wayward IPC classes. This week, in
some media at least, there is a different kind of error...
- Merck has a further invention concerning bistrifluoromethyl
derivatives, which seem to have wide applicability, in such candidates
as NK1 antagonists and class III antiarrhythmics...
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Week
01:
- Knoll has four PCT applications concerned with the use of known
active agents, three of them unhelpfully entitled "Therapeutic
agents". The sole exception, in total contrast, has a title
naming sibutramine...
- Patent application titles which include approved names of drugs
are a rarity; several cases this week identify products by means
of systematic chemical names and structures...
- Other interesting process technology cases come from Hungary
and the US. Richter Gedeon is working on final stage synthesis
of a propionamide identifiable as bicalutamide, an antiandrogen
which began life...
- Subscribers to the Gazette will be interested to see
this week the introduction of a sixth Section dealing exclusively
with what we are terming "electrotherapy". In Section
F we are including...
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