Patent Conflict Over Product Revealed by Idec

Idec Pharmaceuticals on Tuesday said that the Wistar Institute, an independent, Philadelphia-based research center, recently was granted a patent that “purportedly” covers one class of anti-idiotype antibodies that Idec is developing to treat solid tumors.

The Wistar Institute, which already has licensed a “major pharmaceutical company” to utilize the patent, has expressed a “willingness” to discuss the possible issuance of a similar license to Idec, according to a prepared statement released Tuesday by Idec.

The patent at issue deals with a technology used in two Idec products that are now in human clinical studies for the treatment of malignant melanomas. “There can be no assurance that Idec will be able to obtain a patent license or that such a license, if available, will be on commercially reasonable terms,” according to Idec’s prepared statement.

Idec Vice President Clifford Orent on Tuesday declined to comment on specifics surrounding the apparent patent dispute because Idec is in the middle of a $37.5-million initial public stock offering.

Tuesday’s announcement has not delayed the stock offering, Orent said. Orent also said the possibility of a patent dispute was disclosed in the prospectus for Idec’s recent stock offering.

Idec, in its prepared statement, maintained that the patent in question “has no bearing on Idec’s most advanced product candidate,” a group of anti-idiotype antibodies now in Phase III human clinical studies for the treatment of B-cell lymphoma. Idec officials also maintained that the disputed patent “does not relate to any of the company’s other products currently in clinical or preclinical development.”

A Wistar Institute spokeswoman on Tuesday declined to comment on the patent dispute. The institute is an independent research center on the University of Pennsylvania campus in Philadelphia.