Convergen LifeSciences bags patent for lung cancer treatment

Category: WTO Sub-category: Intellectual Property
Document type: news

18-Jul-2011 | 14:38 IST | Edited by: Vishal Bagaria

Austin-based Convergen LifeSciences Inc. has announced a second new patent in months, which is instrumental for the applications for their experiments on treatment for lung cancer.

The company's chief operating and financial officer stated that the newly acquired patent would stretch the usage of CNVN202 to literally all forms of cancers and would extend the use of their patented technologies to incorporate cancer diagnostic and screening tools.

The patent covers CNVN202, a drug therapy targeted at the molecular level that is undergoing clinical trials with lung cancer patients. It caters to a tumor suppressor gene, delivered intravenously, to kill cancer cells without affecting healthy cells.

Emerged from Introgen Therapeutics Inc., Convergen LifeSciences operates on $4.5 million state grant while it searches for private investors, after a heavy loss incurred in 2008.

The patent was granted jontly by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to the University of Texas System Board of Regents and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is exclusively licensed to Convergen LifeSciences, among the other 23.

This patent shall unquestionably fortify the increasing intellectual property portfolio of the company.  The $4.5 million grant, the second-largest so far, from the state's Emerging Technology Fund, captured attention due to the relationship between Gov. Rick Perry and Nance. Nance is a campaign donor and friend who has advised Perry on biotech issues and attended an international business conference in Israel in 2009 with the governor and his family. Perry twice has given Nance's organizations money after Introgen went bankrupt.

In 2010, Perry and legislative leaders gave Convergen LifeSciences the $4.5 million grant after a regional screening committee rejected the company's application. Nance put offo a second review panel before a statewide advisory panel to the Emerging Technology Fund, which included an Introgen alum, finally recommended Convergen's application to the governor.

To keep its documents clandestine, Convergen sued the state, but the lawsuit was settled and the documents released after it got its money. Perry's management of the technology fund prompted the Legislature to put four lawmakers on the state's advisory panel and to demand more transparency in the awards.


 

External Links:

Convergen Lifesciences Inc. - Official Website

United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) - Official Website

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