[ CPRO/VMRX, part 3 ]
from the latest VMRX 10-K........
PATENTS AND LICENSES
Nexell
Nexell's intellectual property estate is arranged into four general patent
families:
1. Selection systems;
2. Bioreactor and culture systems;
3. Reagents for use in selection; and
4. Culturing cell compositions.
The selection system encompasses the Isolex(R) Cell Separator and similar
instruments. This patent family includes patents and patent applications
directed to the basic selection device having two magnets for capturing the
paramagnetic beads and patents and applications directed to the specific device
configuration. The disposable set for the Isolex(R) 300i Cell Separator
incorporates a patented spinning membrane technology used for cell washing.
10
<PAGE>
At the time of the acquisition of Nexell, Baxter granted to Nexell
sublicenses of substantially all of Baxter's rights under four license
agreements, and Nexell assumed substantially all of Baxter's obligations as
licensee thereunder, including payment of all royalties, annual maintenance fees
and other required payments. Two of the sublicenses are under licenses to
Baxter from Becton Dickenson and relate, respectively, to (i) CD34+ technology
for use in applications other than diagnostic applications and (ii) certain
antibodies which attach to CD20+ and CD10+ B cells. A third sublicense is under
a non-exclusive license from Cetus Oncology Corporation, d/b/a Chiron
Therapeutics, and relates to the manufacture, use and sale of specific
antibodies and cell lines for the ex vivo therapeutic treatment of human cancer.
The fourth sublicense is under a non-exclusive license from Professor Bernd
Dorken and relates to certain cell lines for the production of antibodies to be
used in the extracorporeal therapeutic treatment or diagnosis of Non-Hodgkins
lymphoma and other specified malignancies.
*******************************
commentary.... I was once up to my eyeballs in CD34-related research, and I studied the B-D/Johns Hopkins patent in detail at the time that the litigants were squaring off. Tom Okarma et al. at AIS (now a subsidiary of RPR) chose to license the patent at the same time that I was coming to the conclusion that CPRO was committing suicide. I am not worried at all about VMRX from the CPRO perspective, other than they can shift manufacturing to a site outside of the U.S. and sell in some non-U.S. territories. Some might consider, therefore, the FDA validation of Seprate for peripheral blood stem cells as a positive for VMRX.
That's the punch line. Sorry for having made you read so much to get here.
Cheers! Rick |
