Week 51:
- This issue of Current Patents Gazette is the final one
for 2003...
- Official UK Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) notices
this week are confined to a single report...
- Our DOLPHIN database of all pharmaceutical inventions includes
no fewer than 15 cases in which the Canadian Generics manufacturer
Apotex...
- From Indian companies too there are clear signs of a vigorous
approach to the development of generic versions of established
drugs. Dr Reddy's Labs...
- In Japan, Sumika is claiming a synthesis of 4'-bromomethyl-2-cyanobiphenyl,
identifiable as a key intermediate for losartan-type angiotensin
II antagonists...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed November 7th - 14th 2003...
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Week 50:
- For the second consecutive week it is Amersham plc that dominates
the reporting of Supplementary Protection Certificate...
- Olmesartan medoxomil also now has a UK SPC, due to come into
force in February 2012 for a full five years, based on Sankyo's
EP503785...
- Far from clarifying the SPC situation for enfuvirtide, our investigations
following last week's preliminary comments have served only to
show that the patent position is a complex one. This HIV-1 therapy...
- Geneva Pharmaceuticals Inc, which has recently reverted to the
Sandoz name associated with its parent company Novartis...
- In contrast, there are several instances of innovators apparently
revealing the identities of clinical candidates that are not yet
on the public record...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed November 3rd - 10th 2003...
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Week 49:
- Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) notices from the
UK Patent Office in this week's PDJ are confined to a notification
that Amersham's iodixanol...
- New SPC applications from Novartis and Chiron were however posted
on the UK Patent Office website, relating to lumiracoxib and enfuvirtide,
respectively. The elumiracoxib...
- WIPO, as if in response to comments here last week, has managed
to publish this week's 2181 PCT applications in correct IPC order...
- Generic companies are less conspicuous than of late, but there
are nevertheless a handful of interesting process cases pointing
almost certainly to commercial activity...
- In the wake of recent terrorist threats against Western countries,
a sharp increase has been seen in patent applications pertaining
to detection of and protection from biological weapons...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed October 27th - November 3rd
2003...
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Week 48:
- Peptech Limited of New South Wales is using EP486526 as the
basis for an application for a UK Supplementary Protection Certificate
(SPC) in respect of Humira...
- Research Disclosure, after the excitement of the anonymous "AstraZeneca"
defensive publication in issue No 474, returns to normal in No
475 ...
- WIPO has done us all a great service by making available, permanently
it seems, the so-called "Prototype" IPDL site with the images
of all specifications...
- Syntheses of paroxetine, bicalutamide, torasemide, olanzapine,
duloextine and octreotide are among a rich harvest of cases published
this week that serve to flag up generic drug and API manufacturers'...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed October 21st - 27th 2003...
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Week 47:
- UK Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) grants announced
recently include Orions' dexmedetomidine, ICOS...
- Patinnova 2003, held in Luxembourg two weeks ago, included an
excellent paper from Dr Jeremy Phillips...
- By chance, the same issue has been raised by Pharmidex Pharmaceutical
Services Ltd of Mayfair, London. We commented in the Highlights
of CPG0337...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed October 14th - 21st 2003...
|
Week 45:
- Betaseron and aldesleukin now SPC-protected...
- Peptech's Humira and Remicade antibody difficulties...
- Captopril and ramipril in prostate cancer...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed September 30th - October
7th 2003...
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Week 44:
- UK Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) notices appearing
this week bring good news for GSK but maybe the opposite for Takeda...
- Japanese patent extension notices for October include entries
relating to brinzolamide and landiolol. Alcon claimed the carbonic
anhydrase...
- Following our comments recently about Boehringer Ingelheim's
wide-ranging claims in the field of antiasthma candidates, there
is a voluminous application from Vertex Pharmaceuticals...
- Abbott offers strong clues as to the identity of the rapamycin
derivative it will be progressing, in the form a case claiming
two crystal polymorphic forms...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed September 24th - 30th 2003...
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Week 43:
- A five-year period of extended protection under SPC/GB97/091
began on September 23rd 2003 for Fujisawa's cefdinir...
- SPCs were also a focus of interest at the 3rd International
IBC Conference on Parallel Trade, Patents and Generics in Central
and Eastern Europe, held in Vienna...
- Desloratadine, Schering's antihistaminic, marketed in the US
as Clarinex, is the subject of activity by Sun Pharmaceuticals
of India. The Orange Book...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed September 18th - 24th 2003...
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Week 42:
- The grant of a Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) to
Pentech is among eight events reported in this week's Patents
and Designs Journal (PDJ). The Illinois-based company...
- Novartis has PCT applications published this week covering inhibitors
of MMP7 and TNF, but arguably it is a case concerned with the
use of imatinib and flavopiridol...
- Teva provides the only clear example this week of chemical process
technology relating to a potential generic drug. The case in question
is a US application claiming novel polymorphs...
- Less obviously relevant to pharmaceuticals but linked to Teva's
invention is a PCT application from Du Pont, which falls into
the remote IPC sub-classes B01D and C30B. It describes an apparatus...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed September 11th - 18th 2003...
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Week 41:
- Vernalis is not a name that readily comes to mind as one of
the market leaders in the serotonin modulator field...
- PCT applications from major pharmaceutical companies now routinely
designate all possible states for protection when applying to
protect drug products...
- The Patent Information Users Group (PIUG) held its traditional
Northeast Workshop at the Hilton Woodbridge, NJ, on October 8th,
accompanied by various vendor workshops, including one from Thomson
Scientific that included a demonstration of DOLPHIN...
|
Week 40:
- India is in the course of changing its patent law, in such a
way as to bring it into alignment with TRIPS requirements for
harmonization...
- Among a flurry of UK Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC)
notices published this week are three relating to new applications.
The products in question are Rega's adefovir dipivoxil...
- Japanese patent extension notices for September 2003 did not
include any relating to pharmaceuticals. Similarly, Research
Disclosure issue number 473...
- In a similar vein, though maybe with some ultimate therapeutic
possibilities, Paradigm Therapeutics Limited has a pair of fresh
patent applications on a theme...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed August 27th - September 3rd
2003...
|
Week 39:
- The Patents and Designs Journal (PDJ) from the UK Patent Office
has no Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) information
this week...
- India's Council of Scientific & Industrial Research has two
US applications published this week in the field of natural product
extraction and conversion...
- Two Indian commercial enterprises appear to be claiming chemical
processes aimed at manufacturing the non-narcotic analgesic tramadol
more efficiently. However, Jubilant Organosys...
- Breaking news, again involving India, indicates that Ranbaxy
has won tentative approval to market generic simvastatin in the
US, as potential competition to Merck's Zocor...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed August 18th - 26th 2003...
|
Week 38:
- This week sees the grant of a UK SPC to Amgen covering pegfilgrastim
(a pegylated form of recombinant granulocyte colony stimulating
factor)...
- The expiry of an UK SPC relating to miglitol (an intestinal
alpha-glucosidase inhibitor for the treatment of diabetes) was
officially announced this week...
- In recent weeks we have seen many applications from Sirna Therapeutics
Inc. Last week saw 29 applications published, some in the name
of Sirna and some in the company's previous name of Ribozyme...
- There is a definite lull in patenting from generic companies
this week. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research's
(India) claims to another resolution of amlodipine...
- The continuing efforts to develop a generic form of Wyeth's
Premarin product have appeared in the news once more...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed August 12th - 19th 2003...
|
Week 37:
- The recent grant of a UK Supplementary Protection Certificate
(SPC) to Merz & Co coincides with expiry of one previously granted
to Syntex. The Merz product is memantine...
- Also announced this week are two new applications for SPC protection
for adefovir dipivoxil filed on September 4th. In fact both have
the same number, SPC/GB03/030...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed August 4th - 11th 2003...
|
Week 36:
- Novartis has a project based at its Horsham, UK, research center
(but with some NJ input) into inhibitors of phosphatidylinositol
3-kinase (PI3)...
- Citalopram is the focus for two Indian companies with published
applications covering process technology...
- Teva's now has two further cases relating to synthesis zonisamide,
the antiepileptic first claimed by Dainippon in US4172896...
- The Japanese Patent Office (JPO) has processed drug patent extension
applications during August that include imidapril from Tanabe,
telmisartan (Boehringer Ingelheim)...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed July 29th - August 4th 2003...
|
Week 35:
- As this Gazette issue goes to press, news is breaking of an
accord arrived at by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) allowing
the poorest countries to import cheap generic supplies...
- Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals is focusing on incremental
efficiency improvements in the acylation of cephalosporin intermediates...
- Azwell is not a familiar name in the world of drug discovery,
but a chemical synthesis application from the company indicates
that it is associated with scientists at Osaka University of Pharmaceutical
Sciences...
- Vampire technology is implied in an application from PAION GmbH,
a company based in Aachen with stroke therapy as its central target...
- In the UK at least, we have become accustomed to buying our
gas (meaning the propane or whatever that comes though pipes into
our homes) from the privatised electricity companies...
- Biocon India is broadening its interest in statin anticholesterol
drugs, with claims to novel boronate esters useful in the synthesis
of such compounds as lovastatin...
- Pfizer, originator of ziprasidone, has further claims to processes
and compositions, with normal patent expiry approaching in about
five years' time...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed July 21st - 28th 2003...
|
Week 34:
- Skelid, the Paget's disease tiludronic acid product from Sanofi-Synth?bo,
began a five-year term of extended protection on July 25th...
- From the Japanese Patent Office's July Gazette come notices
regarding extensions for brinzolamide (Alcon), mycophenolate mofetil
(Roche)...
- Tyco Electronics UK Ltd of Swindon will be puzzled and perhaps
a little upset to find that they have unwittingly invented some
piperidine derivatives that act as tachykinin modulators...
- Pfizer is on the receiving end of two notices of intent from
the Sub-Continent, in the form of US chemical process applications
in the name of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research...
- It is quite understandable that a research scientist named Cool
should become associated with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed July 14th - 19th 2003...
|
Week 33:
- AstraZeneca and Pfizer seem to be linked in a project targeting
asthma, COPD and other diseases mediated by prostaglandin D2...
- Relatively few generic companies have PCT applications this
week pointing to specific drug targets, but there are explicit
examples from India, Hungary and Korea...
- Ecteinascidins seem to be attracting more than the usual amount
of attention of late. Last week's comments on a University of
Tokyo total synthesis case...
- In a normal week, a string of eight initial UK applications
with identical titles from a single company would be remarkable,
but the cases entitled "Compounds and their use" from Amedis...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed July 3rd - 14th 2003...
|
Week 32:
- There were no Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) events
to report in this week's UK Patents and Designs Journal (PDJ)...
- Hemispherx Biopharma Inc of Philadelphia issued a press release
on August 4th highlighting the grant of a patent in Europe covering
its Oragen-0004 and Oragen-0044 antivirals...
- Natural product extraction and synthesis feature prominently
in this week's new chemical process inventions...
- Other natural products in vogue include zymosterols, under development
by BASF, and phytosterols being used as a source for androstadienediones...
- The Indian Council of Scientific & Industrial Research has developed
an improved synthesis for a doxazosin starting material, and Servier,
through EGIS...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed June 28th - July 1st 2003...
|
Week 31:
- AstraZeneca's anti-androgen Casodex (bicalutamide) is the subject
of a notice in this week's UK Patents and Designs Journal (PDJ)...
- Research Disclosure for July 2003, issue 471, contains just
one marginally relevant item among 91 defensive disclosures of
inventions...
- This week both OXiGENE and Seattle Genetics have both announced
they will receive US Orphan Drug status on products if approved...
- American Conference Institute has kindly informed us of a series
of highly relevant events taking place over the next few months
relating to IP issues...
- A PCT application published this week is the first to appear
in the name of Phoqus Pharmaceuticals Limited...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed June 21st - 27th 2003...
|
Week 30:
- There are no new applications for UK Supplementary Protection
Certificates reported in this week's Patents and Designs Journal...
- In contrast, Roche's valganciclovir is an altogether more straightforward
case, gaining just over a year's additional protection...
- GMP Endotherapeutics Inc of Fort Lauderdale in Florida is at
the center of a rather confusing re-publication saga...
- There is a strong clue among this week's chemical process patents
as to which glycogen phosphorylase inhibitor Pfizer has selected
as the lead compound...
- Generic companies and chemical manufacturers flag up interest
across a range of intermediates and active ingredients...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed June 13th - 20th 2003...
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Week 29:
- Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) applications are
formally reported in this week's UK Patents and Designs Journal
(PDJ) for Sankyo's Benicar and Ortho-McNeil's Evra...
- Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd of Mumbai has two has two
PCT applications published indicating further penetration into
the generic drug marketplace...
- Esteve Quimica of Barcelona is claiming various novel crystal
forms of meloxicam. Boehringer Ingelheim's SPC protection for
this non-steroidal anti-inflammatory...
- The collaboration between Pfizer and Boehringer Ingelheim over
COPD and asthma combination therapies, may well underlie the latter's
patenting...
- The Babraham Institute filed three initial UK applications on
June 13th relating to differential gene expression...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed June 7th - 13th 2003...
|
Week 28:
- Ezetimibe, Schering-Plough's cholesterol absorption inhibitor,
is formally reported to be the subject of a UK Supplementary Protection
certificate...
- GSK and Lilly benefit from the grant of two further SPCs, the
latter by way of a license from Centocor...
- Roche is the instigator of the very latest SPC event to come
to light, the June 30th filing of SPC/GB03/027 in relation to
EP939121 and the product Enbrel (etanercept)...
- Pharmacia Italia SpA seems to be adopting a new tactic in the
search for effective tumor therapies...
- Along with four recent UK initial applications from AstraZeneca
AB is one from the company's UK division filed jointly with the
University of Tokyo...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed May 30th - June 9th 2003...
|
Week 27:
- Mid-June saw the entry into force of one UK Supplementary Protection
Certificate (SPC) to the benefit of Taiho, and new applications
field by Sankyo and Ortho-McNeil...
- Synchronicity is seen in the publication of a PCT application
from Sumika Fine Chemicals Ltd of Osaka just days before a relevant
SPC comes into force. The case in question...
- Antidiabetics, the ¿glitazone¿ PPAR-gamma agonists in particular,
are the subject of five process applications. Four of these relate
to rosiglitazone, which GSK is clearly seeking...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed May 24th - 30th 2003...
|
Week 26:
- Mid-Summer's Eve, June 23rd, saw the announcement of a merger
between Biogen and the rather smaller biotech specialist IDEC...
- We have noted some strange happenings surrounding the block
of more than 130 US provisional applications...
- SIPO, the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's
Republic of China, has informed us of the imminent availability
of a new patents database...
- One patent application apparently not retrieved for the SIPO
SARS database is WO03033732, a recent case from the Bernhard-Nocht
Institute for Tropical Medicine...
- In contrast to the oblique link between Artus and SARS, Cellpep
SA is perfectly explicit in initiating patent protection for "treatment
of SARS"...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed May 16th - 23rd 2003...
|
Week 25:
- Tanabe's imidapril antihypertensive began a five-year period
of post-patent extended protection...
- PPAR and serotonin modulators are especially prominent among
this week's new chemical process cases...
- Other Indian manufacturers featuring this week include Orchid
and Ranbaxy, with cases relating to established cephalosporins,
ceftiofur sodium...
- Our review of recent relevant UK initial patent applications,
due for publication (if at all) in 18 months' time, appears below.
There are substantial series...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed May 9th - 16th 2003...
|
Week 24:
- A seven-month period of extended protection began on May 20th
for toremifene...
- Schering Corp looks set to gain just over three years' additional
protection for ezetimibe...
- Wyeth's venlafaxine appears a couple of times in this week's
chemical process cases...
- Further evidence of Teva's rapidly growing importance in the
pharmaceutical sector is the simultaneous publication of two other
PCT chemical process applications...
- The flourishing chemical industry in south-east Asia is represented
by Yuhan, with claims to a ribavirin intermediate, and by CJ Corporation...
- Research-based companies offer strong clues to the identities
of several lead compounds in earlier stages of the development
process...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications...
|
Week 23:
- Rejection for Lilly goes hand-in-hand with grant for AstraZeneca
in the Supplementary Protection Certificate...
- AstraZeneca has a couple of interesting chemical process cases
that may reveal something of the company's future plans in the
anti-inflammatory and antiarrhythmic...
- Paclitaxel, with almost 2000 patent references in the literature
to date, must surely be the patent analyst's worst nightmare in
terms of finding out where the significant IP rights lie...
- Clarification: Rigel Pharmaceutical's HCV potential therapeutics...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed April 24th - May 2nd 2003...
|
Week 22:
- Ascension Day public holidays in Europe mean that Friday May
30th is the formal publication date on this week's PCT applications...
- The vast majority of inventions, perhaps as many as 90% in certain
specialisms, are following up work described in earlier patents
rather than breaking new ground...
- Chiron, after last week's "ChiroJect" activity, again makes
the headlines with a formal notice of withdrawal of its SPC/GB01/010
application...
- There is also the grant of a veterinary SPC (canarypox virus)
and entry into force of one for crop protection...
- Successful collaboration between Big Pharma and very specialized
smaller companies is indicated, or at least implied, by several
patent applications published this week...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed April 17th - 23rd 2003...
|
Week 21:
- We remind Gazette Highlights readers of the forthcoming Fourth
International "Patent Jamboree", to be held in the prestigious
British Library Conference Centre on Wednesday June 11th...
- Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) notices published
this week by the UK Patent Office include the April 24th filing
of an application relating to GSK's dutasteride...
- As promised, we now offer comments on three recent UK SPC applications
from the first few days of May, GB03/019, 020 & 021. Novo Nordisk
relies on the recently granted EP618807...
- Valdecoxib is the subject of a May 20th SPC application from
Searle (now Pfizer) based on EP809636...
- Earlier this week there was news of a proposal from Chiron to
purchase the drug delivery specialist PowderJect...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed April 10th - 17th 2003...
|
Week 20:
- Cisapride is the subject of the only formal notice this week
from the UK Patent Office...
- By chance, citalopram features in a new Sepracor PCT application
published this week, focusing on enantiomerically enriched (-)-desmethyl-
and (-)-didesmethylcitalopram...
- An application for a UK SPC relating to Glaxo's dutasteride
is among four formally notified during the past fortnight...
- Amlodipine is indirectly the subject of a US patent that issued
on May 13th 2003, just five days short of the first anniversary
of its filing by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research...
- Hunton & Williams of Washington DC, representing News River
Pharmaceuticals Inc of Radford...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed April 5th - 11th 2003...
|
Week 19:
- The UK Patent and Trademark Office (UKPTO) Comptroller-General
has released a statement clarifying the Office's position on patent
claims involving stem cells...
- April 11th 1988 was a big day for the drug industry in Belgium.
Three new medicinal products received their first approval there
on that day...
- Crystals feature in several cases this week relating to both
marketed and generic drugs. Four years after its launch, telmisartan...
- Another contentious situation comes to mind in relation to claims
from Pfizer to novel inhibitors of the recently characterized
PDE9 enzyme...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed March 28th - April 4th 2003...
|
Week 18:
- This week sees confirmation of the grant of UK SPCs for tiotropium
bromide and bimatoprost...
- Paradoxically, the applicant name Merck Generics (UK) Ltd appears
for the first time this week on a PCT application covering process
development work that clearly took place in India. The E Merck...
- There is an Indian theme too in a case with claims to synthesis
of COX-2 inhibitors...
- Electrotherapy has now been included in the Gazette, for more
than a year, reflecting the growing importance of therapies...
- On November 29th 2001 Pfizer seems to have filed a patent application
relating to a crystal structure, and it is possible that it was
used...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed March 21st - 28th 2003...
|
Week 17:
- A UK Patent Office clerk dealing with Supplementary Protection
Certificates (SPCs) seems to have dozed off for several months,
and has only just formally reported the entry into force of Armour
Pharmaceutical's...
- Strides Arcolab, established in 1990, is now a major supplier
of generic pharmaceuticals from India, but until now seems not
to have become involved in patenting. That changes now...
- It was announced this week that BMS has agreed to pay $55million
to settle allegations that it delayed generic competition for
Taxol (paclitaxel). $12million of this...
- An article published in the New England Journal of Medicine
on 10th April identifies a novel coronavirus found in patients
with SARS. The real-time PCR assays...
- Having appreciated the scope of Eisai's WO0166114, one might
wonder if any further uses of its acetylcholinesterase inhibitor,
donepezil (Aricept) could be conceived. However...
- Vivus sought protection for local administration of PDE inhibitors
for erectile dysfunction in WO9921558. Several corresponding US
patents have issued covering aspects...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed March 14th - 20th 2003...
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Week 16:
- This week the UK's Patents and Design Journal (PDJ) reminds
us that SPC protection for BTG's deferiprone came into force...
- The last week or so of March also saw expiry of SPC protection
for esmolol and lactitol. Ohmeda's protection for the Astra (Haessle)
beta-blocker was based on...
- Other generic drugs featuring this week include ceftiofur, methylphenidate,
gabapentin and oxcarbazepine, all rather dated in a sense; but
there is activity in relation to...
- Methylphenidate hydrochloride resolution is claimed by Sention
Inc of Rhode Island, in only its fifth PCT application. The Indian
company Shasun, in its very first...
- Pfizer, in the name of Warner-Lambert, seeks to protect an invention
that may well be merely incremental in scientific terms, but could
nevertheless provide a period of additional monopoly for gabapentin...
- AstraZeneca scientists at Loughborough in the UK are working
on improved syntheses of bipiperidinyl derivatives suitable for
such candidates as the CCR3 modulators...
- The UK's Royal Society, claiming to be oldest scientific society
in the world, this week published a report entitled "Keeping science
open: the effects of intellectual property policy on the conduct
of science"...
- Addex Pharmaceuticals, a company founded in 2002 to develop
treatments for addiction and other neuropsychiatric conditions,
filed one of its first UK priority applications...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed March 8th - 14th 2003...
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Week 15:
- This week we say a grateful farewell to Alexandra Gregory, splendidly
efficient and dedicated Editor...
- Research Disclosure is a monthly rapid disclosure journal first
published more than 40 years ago, and now being re-launched electronically,
as RD Electronic...
- Medeva and Alcon are the recipients of Supplementary Protection
Certificates (SPCs) granted on March 13th by the UK Patent Office...
- DOLPHIN, our database of all pharmaceutical inventions, indicates
that on average some 3% of all patenting in this sector involves
more than one institution...
- COX-2 inhibitors, specifically celecoxib and valdecoxib derivatives,
feature this week in PCT applications from Pfizer and Pharmacia.
At an earlier stage in development, Nippon Kayaku...
- UK Patent applications notices appearing for the first time
this week include eight on a rather grimly topical theme. These
are ¿submarine¿ patents, not literally but all on defense-related
subjects such as bombs, missiles...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed March 3rd - 10th 2003...
|
Week 14:
- USPTO website dysfunctionality has prevented us searching for
new US applications with our usual thoroughness, but we have covered
the principal US Classes...
- UK Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) applications have
recently been filed by Vernalis and Novartis, both triggered by
UK marketing authorizations...
- Pfizer's amlodipine entered a one-year period of extended protection
on March 8th 2003, under the terms of SPC/GB93/046, following
expiry of EP89167. Novartis, Sumitomo and Almirall...
- Pramipexole, first claimed by Dr Karl Thomae in EP186087, and
with SPC protection generally until December 2010, is now the
subject of a trademark dispute involving Byk Gulden. The problem
seems to be that Boehringer's...
- Indian companies and institutions are especially active in this
week's process patenting. Ranbaxy is seeking to protect a further
improved process for Novo Nordisk's repaglinide...
- Arachnova goes for a totally explicit approach in the title
of a new therapeutic use application filed at the UK Patent Office
on February 28th 2003. The thienopyridine derivative...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed February 26th - March 3rd
2003...
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Week 13:
- Japan is the focus of this issue of the Gazette, partly
to enable us to introduce this ultra-fast alerting service to
new Japanese users...
- UK SPCs (Supplementary Protection Certificates) are normally
commented upon here, because of their importance to the originators
of new drugs, and to generic manufacturers. Chiron and Novo Nordisk...
- Metaxalone, a 1950s AH Robins muscle relaxant, is easily the
most ancient target for process chemists in this week's Gazette
- Farchemia...
- Japan Tobacco Inc, having successfully collaborated with Agouron
in the development of nelfinavir...
- Mitsubishi also includes HIV among the proposed indications
for a series of novel thiazolidine derivatives...
- Other Japanese innovation appearing for the first time this
week includes NF-kB inhibitors from Suntory, antiulcer benzimidazoles
from Zeria...
- Diversity in Japanese Drug Patenting - Four Japanese pharmaceutical
companies...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed February 18th - 25th 2003...
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Week 12:
- The Community Patent for the EU seems finally to be arriving,
after more than 30 years' negotiation...
- SPC/GB01/033, with an April 2012 expiry date, has been granted
to American Cyanamid Company for the Prevnar pneumococcal saccharide
conjugated vaccine...
- Also reported in this week's Patents and Designs Journal (PDJ)
is the recent entry into force of five-year SPCs for P&U...
- European patents granted this week include a pair from Antibioticos
SpA with more than the usual commercial importance...
- Crystals feature in a handful of chemical process cases this
week in a variety of contexts. Searle, for example, is working
on a synthesis...
- Possibly not strictly within the scope of this Gazette,
but nevertheless noteworthy for its far-reaching implications,
is a UK initial application bearing the title "The people of Europe"...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed February 11th - 18th 2003...
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Week 11:
- Antimicrobials from Abbott and Pfizer are the subject of Supplementary
Protection Certificates (SPCs) granted in mid-February. Abbott's
difloxacin, now protected until...
- Something strange is afoot in Radford, Virginia, judging by
a new PCT application from New River Pharmaceuticals Inc, based
there. The puzzling document...
- In sharp contrast to the breadth of NRP's patenting, several
applicants focus on synthesizing specific salts or crystal forms
of know drugs. The isethionate salt of paroxetine...
- A major series of ten PCT applications from an Aventis team
in Frankfurt suggests that an anti-obesity project there is yielding
copious leads with peripheral anorexiant action...
- BTG International's patenting of novel cyclopenta[g]quinazoline
derivatives highlights some interesting collaborations, most obviously
with Cancer Research Campaign Technology...
- Avidex Ltd continues to attract attention, if only for the volume
of its patenting. A tenth PCT application appears this week, at
the same time as an initial UK application...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed February 5th - 11th 2003...
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Week 10:
- The University of Rochester's long-running patent dispute with
Pfizer and Pharmacia over COX-2 inhibitors may now be coming to
an end. Rejecting the University's claims...
- The grant of two UK Supplementary Protection Certificates and
the entry into force of three others marks a welcome return to
the real world after the mis-reporting in recent issues of the
UK's Patents & Designs Journal (PDJ)...
- Also in the PDJ, the recent entry into force is reported for
SPCs protecting Warner-Lambert's acrivastine (alone and as a combination
with pseudoephedrine) and Hoechst's ramipril...
- Statins (strictly "vastatins") feature in several of this week's
chemical process PCT applications. The Korean company Cheil Jedang
claims a lactonization useful in the synthesis of lovastatin and
simvastatin, while fluvastatin...
- Remaining with generics, the Indian company Sun Pharmaceutical
Industries filed a cluster of five applications in Mumbai in April
2002 betraying an interest in salts of esomeprazole...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed January 29th - February 4th
2003...
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Week 09:
- UK Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) notices this week
are confined to a single expiry, that of SPC/GB93/060, relating
to gadopentetate dimeglumine. This Schering AG...
- The Swiss company Cimex AG has a European application published
this week relating to a bi-layered co-amoxiclav dispersible tablet
formulation. This seems to be a patenting "first" for both Cimex
and the inventor, but Alpharma Ltd...
- The very down-to-earth patenting of processes and formulations
sometimes give clues to the precise identity of candidates entering
clinical development but as yet structurally unidentifiable. There
seem to be several examples of this in the current PCT applications,
including a cluster of three from Merck & Co. A humble addition...
- Possibly the same general observation applies to a Pharmacia
& Upjohn application relating to the crystal form of a protein
tyrosine kinase inhibitor, since the company has no reported development
candidate...
- Pfizer seems to be going further into the series of ring-locked
derivatives of the piperidine CCR5 modulators first seen in cases
such as WO0039125. A new UK application...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed January 23rd - 29th 2003...
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Week 08:
- UK Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) reporting in the
Patents and Designs Journal (PDJ) is descending into farce. The
only entries this week are both Errata...
- Two new SPC applications have however been lodged, in the names
of Amgen and ICOS. The former's SPC/GB03/006 relies on EP733067,
providing cover for pegfilgrastim...
- Ranbaxy leads the generic companies this week by having two
PCT applications published claiming improved processes for established
products. In the case of Nycomed Christiaens' torsemide...
- The National Institutes of Health's budget request for 2004
stands at almost $28bn, and includes a biodefense budget up by
117% on the 2003 figure, according to the latest issue (No5) of
BioTITLES...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed January 16th - 23rd 2003...
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Week 07:
- Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) Erratum notices are
again to the fore in this week's Patents and Designs Journal (PDJ),
accounting for two of the five entries. With relevance to drugs...
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has achieved grant
of an SPC based on EP260415, which relates to the polycondensation
product polifeprosan in combination with carmustine. The patent
would originally...
- Alcon and Orion have fresh SPC applications on file. Alcon's
EP527801 and a Swiss approval for brinzolamide from December 1999
are the basis for SPC/GB03/004. On this basis the carbonic anhydrase
inhibitor...
- BIOTITLES is a fortnightly newsletter we now receive
summarizing drug industry regulatory and business opportunity
news. Compiled in Tel Aviv by the BioData consultancy, it includes
a list of a dozen or two recent relevant patent application titles,
but is particularly strong on changes to legislation and regulations
in the EU and US...
- Generic drug activity, or at least the preparations for it,
are evident in several Section C synthesis cases. The Italian
chemicals manufacturer AMSA is claiming a synthesis of flecainide,
the Riker (3M) anesthetic in which Barr has also demonstrated
interest. The Novartis subsidiary Biochemie has developed...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed January 8th - 17th 2003...
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Week 06:
- The UK Patent Office's official confirmation appears this week
for an apparent error we reported here four weeks ago regarding
the Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) granted to Allergan
for bimatoprost...
- Inventorship complexities are typified in a PCT application
from Sheffield-based BioActa Ltd relating to a peptide screen.
The inventors have residential addresses in Basel...
- UCB also raises SPC issues, indirectly, in a process case concerned
with the antihistaminic cetirizine follow-up efletirizine. As
basic protection for...
- Cefuroxime axetil, citalopram, ciprofloxacin and ribavirin are
among the other established products implicated in this week's
process patenting. Of these, it is Lundbeck's...
- Infosint's inventors are Italian, as are those named by Clariant
on a European case claiming synthesis of ribavirin. This antiviral,
discovered by ICN but then licensed to Schering Plough...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed December 24th 2002 - January
8th 2003...
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Week 05:
- The Hon Mr Justice Jacob somewhat reluctantly declared both
GB2118042 and EP998292 invalid in the UK in a judgement issued
last week following a UK High Court hearing last November. In
his conclusion he regrets that Merck & Co...
- On Wednesday, Alpharma Inc announced that its subsidiary Purepac
Pharmaceutical Co has been granted exclusivity for its generic
copycat of Pfizer's Neurontin by the US FDA. Specifically the
company has secured eligibility...
- Mallinkrodt has gained approximately twenty two months of supplementary
protection for its X-ray contrast agent ioversol, as SPC/GB93/089
entered into force on 5th January 2003. This SPC was...
- The major pharmaceuticals had their customary pre-Christmas
rush of patent filings, AstraZeneca's totalled ten, Novartis had
eight, Glaxo also had ten and Pfizer came in with three. Most
had uninformative titles...
- And finally, those concerned with dwindling research budgets
in these financially troubled times may be interested in an application
published by the USPTO this week. US20030023526 from a Mr Jeffery
Joseph Stewart of Spokane...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed December 18th - 24th 2002...
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Week 04:
- Merck's additional UK protection for the combination of enalapril
with hydrochlorothiazide, SPC/GB93/026 based on EP12401, finally
expired...
- Excruciatingly bad timing has hit a Dutch drug company that
seemed poised to launch CHIPS - chemotaxis inhibiting protein
from Staphylococcus aureus-based compounds, that is. A
PCT application on this subject...
- Shionogi's rosuvastatin, licensed to AstraZeneca, may well be
the principal motivation for a case from DSM in which the enzymic
synthesis of hexose derivatives is claimed. Justification for
this inference...
- A tight cluster of half-a-dozen PCT applications on purification
of waste gases, the latest published this week, serves to highlight
Merck's specific interest in removing traces of mercury from high
temperature, high moisture gas streams...
- Visually more appealing than most specifications is a PCT application
from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology dealing with surfactant
peptide nanostructures. The MIT team from the Center for Biomedical
Engineering...
- Professor Steven Ley, FRS, is named as an inventor on a PCT
application that involves two former ICI companies, as well as
his own renowned natural product synthesis team at the University
of Cambridge. Formally the applicant name...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed December 14th - 20th 2002...
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Week 03:
- Ricin has been prominent in the UK news over the past week in
connection with terrorism, and there is now news of a vaccine
from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW)...
- Ebastine has its Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC)
position formally clarified in this week's Patents and Designs
Journal (PDJ)...
- By chance we have noted a further long-standing error in respect
of SPC/GB94/005, granted in December 1994. The official UK Patent
Office online record...
- Four Curagen PCT applications published this week stand out
for the number of US priorities they claim. Relating to novel
proteins and nucleic acids...
- Sildenafil, vardenafil and IC-351 are among the PDE-5 inhibitors
named by Laboratorios Esteve in a PCT application concerned with
compositions for use in erectile dysfunction...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed December 6th - 16th 2002...
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Week 02:
- Allergan's bimatoprost has now been granted a Supplementary
Protection Certificate (SPC) in the UK, based on EP660716. SPB/GB02/035
has taken only a little over three months...
- The first UK SPC application for 2003 is in the name of Genetics
Institute Inc, filed by a Wyeth attorney. It relates to dibotermin
alfa, and relies on EP313578. Published first as...
- Essential Therapeutics Inc of Waltham, Massachusetts is at the
center of a complex intellectual property situation involving
PLIVA. The latter appears as joint applicant on a drug design
PCT application...
- Valomaciclovir, formerly known as MIV-606, also features in
a situation with more than the usual level of complexity. Medivir
is claiming an improved synthesis of...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed November 27th - December
5th 2002...
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Week 01:
- Lilly's Swiss approval for marketing of drotrecogin alfa, in
June 2002, has triggered an SPC application...
- Pfizer was given prominent UK press coverage on January 4th
in connection with an appetite suppressant known as P57...
- Fexofenadine seems to be permanently in the news because of
its patent position. Last week we reported work by Ranbaxy on
polymorphs...
- Citalopram continues to excite interest across the industry.
First claimed by Kefalas (now Lundbeck)...
- Aventis features in ten newly published applications this week,
spread quite evenly across the first four Sections of the Gazette...
- UK Initial "A0" Applications filed November 21st - 27th 2002...
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