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ROCKVILLE, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In a case involving leading molecular diagnostic company Myriad Genetics, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously last Thursday that human genes cannot be patented. The Court invalidated Myriad’s patents on two breast cancer genes because Myriad’s patented genes were found in nature; therefore, Myriad had not invented anything when it received patents for the genes in 1996. However, the court did determine that manipulations of genes and DNA remain patentable, upholding patents for cDNA. Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc. (ITI) is pleased to announce that the Court’s decision does not affect the Company’s intellectual property including its issued patents covering the LAMP Technology Platform. In addition to having no direct impact on LAMP vaccines, including all work to date, the ruling gives the company access to data that promises to serve ITI well moving forward. ITI’s Lysosome-Associated Membrane Protein (LAMP) patents do not directly claim the LAMP genes in the primary claims, instead claiming both the four-amino-acid sequence that targets the lysosome and the luminal domain of LAMP linked to other DNA sequences. None of the constructs used by ITI could be found in Nature, and as such, the Court’s ruling will not hinder ITI’s future innovations in plasmid vaccines.
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