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news.The US Patent and Trademark Office has declared an interference between a patent application for interleukin-6 owned by a unit of Enzo Biochem and four US patents owned by Yeda R&D Co, the commercial arm of Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science.
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An interference is a proceeding brought before the Patent Office when two patent applications containing allowed claims, or an issued patent and an allowed patent application, claim essentially the same invention. The purpose of the interference is to determine who was the first to make the invention. The owner of the invention is also determined as a consequence.
A favorable outcome in the interference would pave the way for Enzo’s development of its first cytokine-based pharmaceutical and could potentially establish an additional therapeutic platform for the company.
Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a cytokine that plays important roles in host defense, acute phase reactions, immune response and blood cell production. The protein is currently the subject of numerous research and clinical investigations on mediating the body’s responses to cancer, infection, injury and disease.