Geron Granted European Patent Covering Nuclear Transfer Technology
MENLO PARK, Calif., Feb 6, 2002 (BW HealthWire) -- Geron Corp. (Nasdaq:GERN)
announced today that the European Patent Office has granted European Patent No.
0849990 including 21 claims covering various aspects of the use of nuclear
transfer technology in the cloning of non-human animals.
"We're pleased that our nuclear transfer patent portfolio is maturing and that
the pioneering nature of this technology is being recognized by the granting of
patents around the world," noted David J. Earp, J.D., Ph.D., Geron's vice
president of intellectual property. "The claims of this European patent cover
the cloning of animals, including cattle, sheep, pigs, goats and birds. This is
significant given the commercial opportunities in cloning various species for
agriculture, industrial applications, xenotransplantation and biopharmaceutical
production."
There have been recent developments in the cloning of pigs as a first step
towards developing xenotransplantation therapies, the production of
biopharmaceuticals in chicken eggs and the manufacture of spider silk for
industrial materials. Nuclear transfer technologies may facilitate all of these
applications. The claims of the patent also cover the production of animal cell
lines from embryos made by nuclear transfer, as in the case of embryonic stem
cell lines.
With the issuance of this European patent, Geron's nuclear transfer patent
portfolio now includes two issued U.S. patents, 19 patents that have been
granted or accepted in other countries and over 60 patent applications pending
worldwide for this fundamental cloning technology.
Geron is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing
therapeutic and diagnostic products for applications in oncology and
regenerative medicine, and research tools for drug discovery. Geron's product
development programs are based upon three patented core technologies:
telomerase, human embryonic stem cells and nuclear transfer. |
