ImetelChat

By Hoosier Investor, Seeking Alpha (1 July 2016)

Summary
- US9375485 is a newly granted US patent assigned solely to Geron.
- US9375485 grants broad protection involving the use of a telomerase inhibitor to alleviate symptoms associated with MF, MDS, or CMML.
- US9375485 extends Imetelstat's patent protection by eight years.

Background
In the fall of 2012, Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN) employees (Monica Stuart and Stephen Kelsey) recognized an opportunity to seek patent protection involving the use of Imetelstat as a treatment for various hematologic diseases. In support of their vision, Geron filed patent application US20140163090 on December 7, 2012.
In November 2014, Geron entered into a collaboration agreement with Janssen Biotech to develop Imetelstat for the Myelofibrosis (MF), Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS), and Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) diseases. Under terms of the agreement, Janssen will pay royalties to Geron based on future Net Sales of Imetelstat with Janssen's royalty obligation ceasing upon the expiry of the last valid patent claim affording legal protection to Imetelstat.

Imetelstat Patent Protection
Dr. Scarlett has previously stated Geron has patent protection for Imetelstat until 2025. Dr. Scarlett's statement is most likely based on US7494982 that covers the base formulation of Imetelstat with the lipid tail. US7494982 was scheduled to expire on September 9, 2023, but Geron secured a patent term adjustment of 474 days. Assuming no further patent extensions, Imetelstat patent protection from US7494982 will expire on December 26, 2024.
US9375485 provides lengthy and broad patent protection involving the use of any telomerase inhibitor to treat symptoms of MF, MDS, or CMML. Geron filed this patent application (US20140163090) on December 7, 2012 just prior to the initiation of Dr. Tefferi's pilot study. The USPTO did not award any patent term adjustments, so the expiration of this patent will be Dec 7, 2032. Thus, US9375485 provides 16+ years of patent protection from today, and it extends Imetelstat's period of patent protection by eight (8) years.

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Conclusions
The extension of Imetelstat's patent protection by eight (8) years will serve to protect Imetelstat from competition in the primary MF and MDS indications, and following regulatory approval, the new patent will significantly extend the future royalty obligations and income stream from Janssen. This new patent significantly increases Geron's discounted cash flow (DCF) projections and/or acquisition valuation.
Geron's stock price is likely to appreciate as investors better understand the probability, EPS potential, and patent protection associated with Imetelstat's Myelofibrosis and/or MDS treatment opportunities.

Link to the full article: http://seekingalpha.com/article/3985729 ... 3&uprof=46

Herewith a comment by Hoosier (author of the SA article).

Hoosier:
I've been actively monitoring the status of the US20140163090 application for ~18 months (since it first published), and I sent a congratulatory note to Dr. Scarlett on 10/2/15.....the day USPTO provided their 'Notice of Allowance' for the amended claim set. I had been writing this article in my head since the 'Notice of Allowance'....just waiting for the granted patent to publish.
I wouldn't have written the article if I'd known Geron was going to issue a press release announcing the new patent. They've had many patents grant in the past with no press releases, and I didn't expect anything different for this one. The fact they issued a PR for this patent further indicates the importance of extending Imetelstat's period of patent protection.

There's a slight difference in our estimated expiration dates. For clarity sake, the USPTO has not yet issued any term adjustments. Thus, I would argue that my Dec'32 expiration date is correct. However, the USPTO has attributed 126 days of delay to the USPTO's review of the application. I believe Geron is assuming they'll ultimately be awarded the 126 day extension (at a minimum), and that's the difference between our stated expiry dates. I'm not well versed in patent term adjustments, so I'd say Geron's publicly communicated expiry date will prove accurate.

Finally, I don't believe they'd be publicly announcing/promoting new Imetelstat patents in the absence of IMbark and/or IMerge trial responses. Thus, I'm hopeful such announcements are an indirect indicator of respectable trial responses.