Merck Licenses Enabling Microarray Manufacturing and Gene Expression Technology From Incyte Genomics
PALO ALTO, Calif., April 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Incyte Genomics, Inc. (Nasdaq: INCY - news), the leading genomic information company, announced today it has licensed U.S. Patent Numbers 5,716,785 and 5,891,636, to Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK - news) for use in creating gene expression data microarrays. Additionally, Incyte has licensed U.S. Patent Numbers 5,807,522 and 6,110,426 to Merck for internal manufacturing of microarrays. Financial terms were not disclosed.
``We have seen increasing use of our fundamental microarray technologies for microarray manufacture and for the generation of gene expression data from microarrays,'' said Roy A. Whitfield, Chief Executive Officer of Incyte. ``We are pleased that Merck is one of a growing list of companies that have recognized the value of our proprietary technology to maximize the effectiveness of their highly developed microarray based gene expression and internal microarray manufacture programs.''
Incyte was granted an exclusive license under the '785 and '636 patents by Layton Bioscience, Inc. The technology was invented by James H. Eberwine, Russell N. Van Gelder, Mark E. Von Zastrow, and Jack D. Barchas. These patents, which cover the use of a non-PCR based RNA amplification technology, allow researchers to produce gene expression data by linearly increasing RNA sample size from cellular mRNA.
In addition to the Layton patents, Incyte was granted an exclusive license to the Stanford University microarray portfolio of patents, which include the '522 and '426 patents, covering one of the most widely used methods of microarray manufacture. The inventors of the patents are Tidhar Dari and Patrick O. Brown of Stanford University.
For additional information on licensing these patents, interested parties should contact Holly Marcum, Sr. Director of Corporate Development, at 650-621-7608... |
