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Biotech / Medical : Novartis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Chuck. Edwards who wrote (218)	6/12/1998 10:40:00 AM
From: Starlight	Respond to of 296

Thanks. I didn't see that in the news.

To: Chuck. Edwards who wrote (218)	6/16/1998 11:47:00 AM
From: Starlight	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 296

Here's another reason for the recent drop: Monday June 15, 8:01 pm Eastern Time Monsanto seeks $6 mln in damages in corn seed case By Rita Farrell WILMINGTON, Del, June 15 (Reuters) Monsanto Co (MTC - news) will ask a federal jury for at least $6 million in damages from Mycogen Corp's (MYCO - news) plant science unit and from Novartis AG's (NOVZn.S) Ciba-Geigy unit for their alleged infringement of Monsanto's patent for genetically engineered corn seed. But Novartis and Mycogen, which is 70 percent owned by Dow Chemical Co (DOW - news), said they intended to prove that Monsanto's patent is invalid. In opening arguments Monday in the U.S. District Court in Delaware, Monsanto attorney John Lynch said the company was the first to make a seed and to grow a plant with ''built-in insect resistance.'' Farmers using engineered seeds receive ''the biggest bang for the buck,'' Lynch said, because their plants contain a naturally occurring bacteria, bacillus thuringenesis, with gene sequences modified to produce an insecticidal protein that kills infesting bugs. Of the 560 million ton annual worldwide harvest of corn, which is used primarily for animal feed and in products like syrups, cereals and flour, Lynch said seven percent or 40 tons was destroyed by the European corn borer. He said $12 per bag of seed would be a reasonable royalty because Novartis is already effectively paying that for a related Monsanto license. But Lynch said Novartis, which produces half a million bags annually, will argue that if a royalty is awarded, it should be no more than $3 a bag. Novartis attorney Dimitrios Drivas told the jury of nine ''This case is about a race'' which he said was won in 1992 by former Agracetus employee, Ken Barton. Monsanto bought Agracetus in 1996, hired Barton, and retired his patent application to ''take it out of play'' as evidence of prior invention. Drivas told Reuters ''We are saying that...Barton and (Michael) Miller in their patent application, now owned by Monsanto, were the first inventors of the claim in patent '365'' which is at issue in Monsanto's lawsuit. Monsanto has licensed its technology to 200 corn seed producers including Pioneer Hybrid, DeKalb Genetics and Cargill Seed. Monsanto spokesman David Snively told Reuters that even if the jury should find the patent invalid, those licenses ''will be unaffected by this action because we have multiple licenses and intellectual property involved in those licenses.'' The trial before Judge Roderick McKelvie is expected to last through June 29.