Cobalt, regarding Richard, curious as to where you got the information on the patent application. The USPTO web site says that patent application data is confidential.
You are correct, but outside the US things are different. I believe a year after submission all applications to the European or other Patent offices are published even before patents are issued. We geeks -g- tend to look at the EPO/WO web sites well before the US site because of this fact and to see what's coming. I guess Rick's abstract came from there. This is the link: ep.dips.org
The larger, valid, issue you raise is how easy it would be to BTRN, or the patent holder thereof, to defend this turf. As Rick indicated, a number of the components of this procedure may be indeed proprietary, but what is far from clear (to me) at this point, is what is going to be required to make this work with some degree of reliability. So, yes, if it turns out all you need (big all indeed) to make this work is to do a BMT plus an organ transplant to avoid the need for life-long immunosuppression, it will be hard to protect.
You also nailed it when pointing out the issue of relative risk of BMT vs. standard immunosuppression. At this point in time, very very few (none?) surgeons will do a BMT just to make sure the organ graft works (without immunosuppression). Guess most prefer to deal with the devil they know.
Don't say "adieu" just yet. I have lurked in the Burke thread in the past, and have enjoyed your contributions there.
PB |
