Geron patents

[Fishermangents]

Geron has worked for many years in silence during times that telomerase inhibition was still in the shadows. That gave them the opportunity to develop this 'diamond in the rough', which JnJ seems to like so much. This 'diamond in the rough' is probably not only just referring to imetelstat.

We know Geron has loads of patents regarding imetelstat, telomerase inhibition, oligonucleotides etc. I have been involved in some patent work myself (more from a business piont of view, rather then tehcnical) and I know from experience that it is a lot of higly specialized work. Off course any patent should have some new elements. Filing a patent is a strategic choice from a business point of view: making the innovation public (by patenting it) or keep it as a business secret. In the 10-K we can read that Geron also has a lot of business secrets, we don't know about. Managing all this requires a serious kind of Telomerase IP Factory, which involves integrated business, technical and legal skills. Just take a look at the inventors who have been involed in the 15 patent filings in 2015 only:

Sergei M. Gryaznov, Krisztina Pongracz, Richard L. Tolman, Gregg B. Morin, Robert J. Tressler, Ning F. Go, Monic J. Stuart, Stephen Kelsey, Ekaterina Bassett, Bart Burington, Hui Wang, Kevin Eng, Premchandran H. Ramiya, Ronald A. Pruzan, Thomas R. Cech, Joachim Lingner, Toru M. Nakamura, Karen B. Chapman, William H. Andrews, Jennifer Smith, Mark J. Ratain, Fabio Benedetti, Mahesh Ramaseshan, Calvin B. Harley, Laurence Elias, Jennifer Smith, Mark J. Ratain, Daria Zielinska

And that's ONLY 2015! If you go back to 2009, you will see some of the same names (it seems Gryaznov and Pongracz are a fruitfull duo), but also other names. And these are not all people from Geron R&D (anymore). That means that Geron is actively working with people and organizations outside Geron in order to build and maintain the patents base, which is a major corner stone of Geron's business.

It would be highly interesting to make a kind of high level overview of these patents: what technical/medical area do they cover, which external people/organizations have been involved, how do patents and inventors relate, what innovation may we expect etc. Together I think we can try to put bits and pieces together. If this becomes an active discussion on this board, we may open a special forum for that, maybe moderated by an expert on this patents area. (Hoosier, where are you?)

Any additional suggestions/ideas?

[cheng_ho]

To do a good job would take a full time staff

Might I suggest that the first thing to look at is how many other telomerase inhibitors are covered, if any? The antisense oligos are only a tiny part of the available inhibitor chemicals.

[hiprock88]

re. cheng_ho "Might I suggest that the first thing to look at is how many other telomerase inhibitors are covered, if any? The antisense oligos are only a tiny part of the available inhibitor chemicals."

Well that's really the big question isn't it? And if I were looking for an answer to this question, short of directly asking Geron, where to start?

[Fishermangents]

First we should find a good resource. I use to look at FreshPatents: http://stks.freshpatents.com/Geron-Corporation-nm1.php. It goes back to 2009, but I don't know how comprehensive they are. I assume that they list all patents starting from 2009, but I am not sure.

We may go through it year by year, to start with 2009 (only 7 listed) and by selecting those patents that are about telomerase inhibition and leave out all stem cell and other areas.

2009:
1 20090305405 12/10/09 Use of tgf beta superfamily antagonists and neurotrophins to make neurons from embryonic stem cells
2 20090291495 11/26/09 Neural cell populations from primate pluripotent stem cells
3 20090286853 11/19/09 Modified oligonucleotides for telomerase inhibition
4 20090263835 10/22/09 Genes that are up- or down-regulated during differentiation of human embryonic stem cells
5 20090246869 10/01/09 Differentiation of primate pluripotent stem cells to hematopoietic lineage cells
6 20090142770 06/04/09 Hair follicle pharmacodynamic assay for telomerase activity
7 20090111157 04/30/09 Protein and peptide fragments from mouse telomerase reverse transcriptase

[hiprock88]

Sorry if this was brought up previously. An abstract was issued recently entitled "Telomerase inhibitors: a patent review (2010-2015.)" at PubMed.gov. Does anyone have access to the full text? Looks very interesting. Second, Sergei Gryaznov and Krisztina Pngracz filed patent app # 20150322438 on 11.12.2015, which is a continuation. Is this assigned to Geron? Thanks.

[hiprock88]

The following is an excerpt from the abstract mentioned above:

This review summarizes new patents published on telomerase inhibitors from 2010 to 2015. Expert opinion：The review provides a brief account of the background, development, and on-going issues involving telomerase inhibitors. In particular, this review emphasizes imetelstat (GRN163L) and some typical G-quadruplex stabilizers that participate in telomerase inhibition. Overall, the research scope of antineoplastic is becoming broader and telomerase inhibitors have been shown to be a promising therapeutic target. Therefore, novel antineoplastic agents with greater activity and higher specificity must be developed.

Wish there was a way for Dr. Scarlett to address the last sentence.

[Fishermangents]

imetelstat 2.0?

[Fishermangents]

Interesting post by Hoosier on SA (9 Juy 2016) regarding Geron patents which are outside the scope of the JnJ deal.

Hoosier:
I believe the following list of patents represent Geron's in-house (i.e. organic) pipeline that are likely to fall outside of the collaboration agreement with Janssen. These are all granted patents with expiration dates ranging from 2020 to 2032. Perhaps a future presentation will highlight these (or some of these) as representing Geron's existing pre-clinical pipeline that is available for further study and/or development.

US9200327 Diagnostic markers for treating cell proliferative disorders with telomerase inhibitors
US9228189 C-myc antisense oligonucleotides and methods for using the same to treat cell-proliferative disorders
US8877723 Method for identification of sensitivity of a patient to telomerase inhibition therapy
US8785409 Compounds having anti-adhesive effects on cancer cells
US9133233 RNA amidates and thioamidates for RNAi
US7846904 Compositions and methods for increasing telomerase activity
US7262174 Treatment for wounds
US8906615 2′-arabino-fluorooligo... N3′→P5′ phosphoramidates: their synthesis and use

[Fishermangents]

Another comment by Hoosier from SA (9 July 2016) regarding the US8785409 patent.

Hoosier:
I would appreciate scientific review/comment on US8785409. The background section of the patent highlights GRN163 and GRN163L as 1st and 2nd telomerase inhibitors, respectively.

Then, as they (Sergei & Shay) outline the new invention associated with this patent, they present a compound having a structure represented by O-(x-L)n. Wherein.....
O is a polynucleoside moiety comprising a sequence of nucleosides joined by internucleoside linkages.
x is an optional linker group,
L is a lipid moiety, and
n is 1 or 2, and is preferably 1

Later in the patent, they present FIG. 7 which shows the partial structure of an anti-adhesive compound of the invention designated GRN163L “A/Link”, having a basic groups substituted for adenosine nucleosides. In this compound, linkages between adjacent nucleosides (i.e. without intervening abasic groups) are N3′→P5′ thiophosphoramidate (NPS) linkages.

Claim #20 indicates a new compound designated GRN163L "A/Link" as the invention, and one would assume this could a next generation telomerase inhibitor given the Sergei & Shay's involvement. However, they're very clear (numerous places) to highlight the resulting compound is NOT a telomerase inhibitor, and (of course) the title of the patent tells us this is a new compound having anti-adhesive effects of cancer cells.

This seems an intriguing patent me, but I can't follow the science. I would appreciate a layman's explanation on the GRN163L "A/Link" compound, and whether the pursuit of anti-adhesive compounds is an interesting path to pursue.

[Fishermangents]

Three new Geron patents issued today (13 July 2016)

MENLO PARK, Calif., July 13, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Geron Corporation (Nasdaq:GERN) today announced the recent issuance of three U.S. patents related to the company’s telomerase inhibitor, imetelstat.

The first patent, U.S. 9,375,485, has claims covering the use of telomerase inhibitor compounds, including imetelstat, for alleviating at least one symptom of myelofibrosis or myelodysplastic syndromes, including chronic myelomonocytic leukemia. This patent is expected to remain in force until at least March 2033. The other two patents, U.S. 9,388,415 and U.S. 9,388,416, have claims covering methods for using imetelstat to inhibit the activity of telomerase and using imetelstat to inhibit cancer cell proliferation, as well as methods for using imetelstat to treat cancer, and are expected to remain in force until at least September 2024. These patents are related to Geron’s existing imetelstat composition of matter patent U.S. 7,494,982, which issued in 2009 and is expected to remain in force until at least December 2025. Further extensions of patent term may be available for regulatory review periods. Full text patents are available on the United States Patent and Trademark Office website at www.uspto.gov.

Geron’s portfolio of patents related to imetelstat and related products whose mechanism of action is telomerase inhibition have been licensed to Janssen Biotech Inc., (Janssen) under an exclusive worldwide license and collaboration agreement for all human disorders or medical conditions.


http://ir.geron.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=673 ... ID=2185071

[robtmsstt1]

Are these the same patents as we're discussed SA?

[Fishermangents]

Hi Robt, thanks for joining ImetelChat. The latest three patents that were anounced today also have been discussed on SA, just like some of the other posts on this threat. Just read through it and you will see.

[Fishermangents]

Here a nice overview of Geron patents: http://patents.justia.com/assignee/geron-corporation

[biopearl]

Such a shame that so many of these beautiful patents were sold for next to nothing to btx. bp

[Fishermangents]

Bio: so what would have been the right price in your opinion?

[biopearl]

Fish, the patents represent at least several hundred million invested with next to no return at the time of transfer. Perhaps recipients BTX/AST, provide some returns at some point. I am truly not qualified to try to answer your question. I am not a financial type but BTX now controls the IP for the ESC/regenerative medicine sphere world wide I venture to say, and that's some valuable IP. I know Geron had to throw ballast overboard to prevent it from sinking. But it was very valuable ballast. bp

[sargasso]

BP,

One of these days, as GERN draws closer to approval, we are going to have a serious discussion about what this stock is worth and what a reasonable takeover price would be. I believe that will happen and I believe that will be a very interesting discussion.

[huntingonthebluffs]

Interesting posts occurring on the YMB re: patent trolls and patent inventor Ayalew Tefferi's work. Does this change the landscape on getting Imetelstat to market and investments in Geron or is it just a side consideration?

https://www.google.com/patents/US20160287625

Methods and materials for treating hematological malignancies
US 20160287625 A1
ABSTRACT
This document provides methods and materials involved in treating hematological malignancies. For example, methods and materials for using telomerase inhibitors to treat hematological malignancies such as hematological malignancies with a spliceosome mutation genotype or presenting with ringed sideroblasts within bone marrow are provided.

[Fishermangents]

Hunt, I saw it and it is very interesting indeed. The point is that Tefferi has been granted a patent for a specific use of imetelstat. I am not sure if I have seen a doctor of his caliber doing that before. What a clever guy! He must be very confident about the drugs' clinical and commercial potential. His working relationship with JnJ will certainly serve him well. Will he start a private clinic? This goes beyond the IP of Geron, as it does not involve imetelstat or telomerase inhibition as a technology, but rather as part of a method for a specific use. Tefferi obvisouly has found out a way of using imetelstat for a specific purpose. So it is a method that he has patented and not a technology. Tefferi is deeper into imetelstat than I thought. It explains the silence and small bits and pieces of information that is thrown at us once in a while. The people and organizations involved are building and protecting their positions for the opportunities they see ahead of them.

The other interesting observation is that it proves that additional IP involving imetelstat can be built outside the license agreement with JnJ. We may see more of those, because any treatment for a specific disease needs a special approach (e.g. combo's, genetic profiles, individualisation of treatment). The good thing is, that any of such IP will serve Geron's botom line in the end.

[biopearl]

Fish, it's just an application not a grant. Curious though. bp