By Kevin E. Noonan --
Last Friday, the European Patent Office revoked (in its entirety) European Patent No. EP 1 230 375, owned by Cancer Research Therapeutics Ltd. of Cambridge, UK and exclusively licensed to Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The patent was opposed by several companies involved in commercializing RNA interference (RNAi), including Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH, Sirna Therapeutics, Nucleonics, Inc., Quark Biotech, and Silence Therapeutics AG.
The patent, commonly referred to as the "Glover patent" based on the name of the first inventor, contained broad claims but were also limited by disclosure of (relatively) long double-stranded RNA species, which have been associated with provoking immune responses and interferon production in mammals. Alnylam retains licenses to patents relating to smaller species (15-21 nucleotides) having more commercial potential as drugs. These include the Crooke Patents (U.S. Patent Nos. 5,898,031 and 6,107,094 and EP 0 928 290) licensed exclusively from Isis Pharmaceuticals; the Kreutzer-Limmer I and II patents (European Patent Nos. EP 1 144 623, EP 1 214 945 and EP 1 352 061); the Tuschl II patents (U.S. Patent Nos. 7,056,704 and 7,078,196) exclusively licensed fom the Max Planck Society; as well as patents on chemically-modified RNAi variants, including U.S. Patent Nos. 5,670,633; 6,005,087; and 6,531,584.
Alnylam downplayed the EPO's revocation in a press release (see "Alnylam Provides Update on "Glover' Patent"), asserting its intention to appeal the decision.
I wonder how much IP is really going to exist in the RNAi space. There are many companies that have tried to obtain space around entire genes that can be silenced.
Posted by: Alex Birch | July 20, 2008 at 01:45 PM