Hmmmmmmmm............ I haven't looked at "tool" patents in ages, but one would like to find those with most breadth..... something like "inhibition of protein synthesis using siRNA".
:-)
I'll give it some thought, but it takes someone who knows the broad, enabling stuff to comment.
Integra LifeSciences Holdings Corp. sued Merck KGaA, Scripps Research Institute and David Cheresh, a researcher at Scripps, in July 1996 for infringing a group of patents granted to The Burnham Institute and licensed by Integra that are "based on the interaction between a family of cell surface proteins called integrins and the arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) peptide sequence found in many extracellular matrix proteins." Compounds containing this sequence promote or inhibit cell adhesion.
Under a contract with Merck, Cheresh was using the peptides to develop new anti-angiogenesis drug candidates for a variety of diseases, including cancer. Upon learning of Cheresh's experiments, Integra sought to license its patented technology to Merck, but the German pharma declined. And Integra sued.
Integra inherited this project when it purchased the bankrupt (old timers, hold your lunch down) Telios. The scientific founders of Telios were the senior scientists/directors/honchos at Burnham, directly across the street from Scripps. The Merck/Cheresh/Scripps work is the small molecule counterpart to the MEDI/AMEV's vitaxin (anti-alpha-V beta-3 integrin), and AMEV was "Ixsys" at that time.
Kudos to Integra! |
