Not much buzz on this board after yesterday's announcement. I believe this annoucement could be a major inflection point for the company and the industry. INCY is forcing the issue of "open" access to gene targets. Anyone care to take up the mantle?
The following is the author's bad attempt to stimulate and frame some useful debate. All the items are IMHO and subject to bias and stupidity.
1) Yesterday's annoucement will encourage academic insitutions to sign on for the Incyte databases. Avoiding the specter of future intellectual property litigation should be worth a few hundred thousand dollars a year. Right?
Questions: How many? How soon? Is this "shooting for platform dominance" or profit maximization? Why now? Are they more worried about Celera? What if Celera does the same system - Who would you sign on with if you were UCSF?
2) "An open and inexpensive licensing process could encourage drug makers to invest heavily in pursuiing a particular gene of interest" WSJ B30, 11/22/99.
Question: True or untrue? INCY's databases are non exclusive. How much effort will the drug makers put into something that is non-exclusive?
3) Under the deal, PFE will provide INCY with expertise to fortify the database and share knowledge of drug targets. ALso PFE will work with INCY to set priorities.
Question: What do these statements mean? Setting priorities with PFE - that appears strange on the surface to me . . Any one else get that feeling? What is PFE really contributing?
4) "To date, INCY has filed patent applications covering an estimated 50,000 individual genes" INCY press release 11/22/99.
Question: I had heard that INCY had 453 patents on genes and some rumblings about filings on 6,000 or so more. But 50,000? INCY says there are only 140,000 or so total. Is this specific number new to everyone or just me?
5) "The result of the collaboration will be 'an intellectual property trust' containing no more than 20,000 full length genes". WSJ B30 11/22/99.
Question: 20,000 genes do most of the work in the genome? Is it too early to state this? What about the 30,000 other genes that you have filed applications on? Will INCY license those as well on a non-exclusive basis?
This could go on and on, but I would like to hear from others. Please feel free to trash the above comments and flame tha author for being naive, but please state your reasons in order to contribute to the understaning of the entire board.
Cheers, |
