5-Patents: Biotech wins battle for junk justice

[GENET <coordination@genet-info.org>]

------------------------------- GENET-news -------------------------------

TITLE:  Biotech wins battle for junk justice
SOURCE: The Age, Australia, by Eli Greenblat
        http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/11/17/1069027047154.html
DATE:   Nov 18, 2003

------------------------ archive: www.genet-info.org/ --------------------


Biotech wins battle for junk justice

Investors piled into Genetic Technologies yesterday after the biotech
company announced that two US groups it was suing for patent infringement
had settled out of court.

The win leaves only one outstanding lawsuit over Genetic Technologies'
claim to have patent control over methods for researching non-coded, or
"junk", DNA.

Genetic Technologies shares soared 14 per cent to 58¢ before settling at
56¢, up 5¢ on the day. More than 6 million shares were traded in a stock
that typically has daily volumes of less than 500,000.

The Melbourne-based Genetic Technologies has consistently warned it would
sue any company, research institution or university that infringed its
patent over the so-called junk DNA.

In the past, scientists concentrated on a tiny 1.5 per cent slice of the
human genome, dismissing the remaining 98.5 per cent DNA system as useless.

But since early sequences of the human genome were released in 2000,
scientists around the world realised the non-coded sections of DNA played
a role in switching particular genes on and off and so were crucial in
finding cures for gene-related diseases.

 Genetic Technologies founder and executive chairman Mervyn Jacobson said
his team pounced on the unwanted DNA and successfully bought the patent
covering the non-coded DNA of every living creature, including humans.

Speaking from his home in Colorado, Dr Jacobson said Genetic Technologies
had settled its court case with Nuvelo and Covance, though details of the
settlement were confidential.

The outstanding lawsuit is with US biotech giant Applera Corporation, and
Dr Jacobson said he was determined to go all the way to a final judgement
to protect the company's patents.

He said a win against Applera, which has annual sales of more than $US2
billion ($A2.8 billion), could be a warning to any other company
considering an infringement of the patents.

Dr, Jaconsen said Genetic Technologies had sold more than a dozen
licenses to institutions to enable them to use its patent research on
non-coded DNA.




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