Interesting. No idea what these structures are.
Quark Says New siRNAs Offer IP Freedom
November 2008
genome-technology.com
Quark Pharmaceuticals announced it has developed proprietary siRNA structures that it claims will enable it to develop drug candidates based entirely on its own intellectual property. The company has, however, disclosed few details about the molecules.
"We no longer need to rely on other people's patents as far as the structure of the siRNA," says Quark CEO Danny Zurr. Patent applications covering the structures are completely owned by Quark and "we have ascertained through two independent … IP law firms that, indeed, we have the freedom to operate.
"We looked at all the issued patents, and more importantly, all the patent applications that have been published," he says, adding that Quark's new siRNAs are "totally outside" of existing IP in the field, including the Tuschl-1, Tuschl-2, Kreutzer-Limmer, and Crooke patents, which are primarily controlled by Alnylam Pharmaceuticals.
Besides professing their IP edge, Zurr says he expects the new structures to enable Quark to forge technology-licensing deals, which could prove to be a sorely needed source of cash in a down market.
Zurr remains tight-lipped on the specific details about the siRNAs, stating that more information will be made available once the relevant patent applications are published. He does note, however, that the various siRNAs that the company develops based on the new technology will each incorporate different structural modifications based on their targets.
"There is no such thing as … a generic structure," he says. "You have to have a number of different structures tailor-made to the actual [target] sequence. [Ours] is a family of several structures that we can use as a basis to look for the best structure" for a particular sequence.
Importantly, Zurr says, this family of structures does not trigger any immune responses, such as the activation of Toll-like receptors, which has become a key hurdle facing RNAi-based drug makers. |
