FROM: International Herald Tribune
Retrieved from moreover.com
" Firm's Stem Cell Rights at Risk
Andrew Pollack New York Times Service
Saturday, November 3, 2001
Geron Is Chided for Lack of Progress in
Its Research
The University of Wisconsin's patent
licensing foundation is
threatening to revoke Geron Corp.'s
exclusive commercial rights
related to human embryonic stem cells,
a development that could
throw the promising field of research
open to other companies and
academic researchers.
The foundation said in a court filing
that it had "put Geron on
notice" that it was at risk of losing
its rights to develop six types of
human tissues from the stem cells
because it had not made
sufficient progress in developing
medical treatments using those
cells.
Termination of its rights would be a
huge blow to Geron. But it
would probably be welcomed by other
companies and academic
scientists, some of whom have said that
Geron's rights would
discourage others from developing
therapies using embryonic stem
cells.
Geron, a biotechnology company based in
Menlo Park, California,
said Thursday that it hoped to resolve
the issue amicably but
would "resist vigorously" any attempt
to terminate its rights. Human
embryonic stem cells can turn into any
type of cell in the body. So
scientists hope that they may one day
use stem cells to grow new
brain, liver, heart or other tissues to
help repair injuries and treat
diseases.
Geron financed the University of
Wisconsin research that led to
the first isolation of a human
embryonic stem cell by Dr. James
Thomson, a biologist. The university
got a patent, and Geron got
the exclusive commercial rights to
therapies based on six types of
cells.
Embryonic stem cells are controversial
because they are derived
by destroying embryos, which some
people see as human life.
Last summer, President George W. Bush
authorized federal
support of research on the stem cells,
but only on already existing
cell lines, such as those at Wisconsin.
Geron shares jumped on the news, then
slipped back as markets
fell after the terror attacks on Sept.
11. The shares rose 23 cents
to $11.85 on Thursday.
In August, the Wisconsin Alumni
Research Foundation, a
university affiliate that handles the
university's patents, sued Geron
to prevent the company from exercising
an option to gain exclusive
rights to 11 additional cell types. But
Geron's rights to the six
original cell types have not been in
dispute.
In a document filed Tuesday in
connection with that lawsuit,
however, the foundation said that it
informed Geron by letter on
July 31 that it could lose the rights
to even the original six cell lines
because its performance in developing
therapies had been
"disappointing and unacceptable."
The document does not specify what
problems the foundation
thinks Geron is having. Andrew Cohn, a
spokesman for the
Wisconsin foundation, would only say,
"We want to see evidence
of development of all six cell types,"
Geron said in a press release Thursday
that "in principle," the
Wisconsin foundation had the right to
terminate the company's
rights for any cell type that Geron did
not develop diligently. But
the company said its efforts had been
"more than diligent" and that
it had spent $48 million since 1995 on
embryonic stem cell
research and development. "
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