Skip to main content
Premium Trial:

Request an Annual Quote

Appeal Denied

The US Supreme Court on Monday denied a request by Ono Pharmaceutical to review a federal appeals court decision that added two scientists as inventors on company patents covering a new cancer treatment technology, Reuters reports. The technology involves using T cell-targeting antibodies to stimulate immune responses against cancer cells and was developed primarily by Tasuku Honjo, who won a Nobel Prize in 2018 for his work. The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute sued Ono, along with patent licensee Bristol-Myers Squibb, in 2015 seeking to have its researcher Gordon Freeman and former Genetics Institute scientist Clive Wood, both of whom collaborated with Honjo, added to patents covering the technology. According to Reuters, a US District Court found in 2019 that both scientists had made significant enough contributions to Ono-controlled patents that they should be listed as coinventors — a decision upheld by a US Circuit Court the next year. Ono asked the Supreme Court to review the rule, but the court declined, Reuters reports.

Filed under

The Scan

Positive Framing of Genetic Studies Can Spark Mistrust Among Underrepresented Groups

Researchers in Human Genetics and Genomics Advances report that how researchers describe genomic studies may alienate potential participants.

Small Study of Gene Editing to Treat Sickle Cell Disease

In a Novartis-sponsored study in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that a CRISPR-Cas9-based treatment targeting promoters of genes encoding fetal hemoglobin could reduce disease symptoms.

Gut Microbiome Changes Appear in Infants Before They Develop Eczema, Study Finds

Researchers report in mSystems that infants experienced an enrichment in Clostridium sensu stricto 1 and Finegoldia and a depletion of Bacteroides before developing eczema.

Acute Myeloid Leukemia Treatment Specificity Enhanced With Stem Cell Editing

A study in Nature suggests epitope editing in donor stem cells prior to bone marrow transplants can stave off toxicity when targeting acute myeloid leukemia with immunotherapy.