U. Mass Medical School and Carnegie announce licensing agreements with Oxford...( The University of Massachusetts Medi...)

The University of Massachusetts Medical School and the Carnegie Institution of Washington announced today that they have entered into licensing agreements with Oxford BioMedica (LSE: OXB), a gene therapy company, that grants the company rights to key RNA interference (RNAi) patent rights.

The technology was invented by Nobel-prize winning scientists Andrew Z. Fire, PhD, and Craig C. Mello, PhD, and their colleagues. The seminal patent claiming this technology was first granted in the United States by the United States Patent and Trademark Office in 2003. Additional patent rights have been issued in Australia and other US and foreign applications are pending.

This seminal patent covers a process by which ribonucleic acid (RNA), the cellular material responsible for the transmission of genetic information, can silence a targeted gene within a living cell. The process, called RNA interference (RNAi), can shut down disease-causing genes or direct researchers to pathways for effective drug development.

Under the terms of the license agreements, Oxford BioMedica obtains non-exclusive rights in accordance with the established licensing program of the Carnegie Institution and the University of Massachusetts Medical School, as well as certain exclusive rights for human gene therapy applications of RNA interference using lentiviral vectors. A lentiviral vector is based on a type of virus that infects dividing and nondividing cells and stores its genetic information on a single-strand of RNA instead of the more usual double-stranded DNA. In exchange, Oxford BioMedica will pay an upfront payment, annual maintenance fees, milestone payments, and royalties on sales. Further details were not disclosed.

James P. McNamara, PhD, Executive Director of the Office of Technology Management of the University of Massachusetts Medical School commented: As the Medical School looks toward the convergence of RNAi, gene therapy, and cellular the
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