On July 27, 2020, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) submitted comments to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) regarding the “Prospective Grant of Exclusive Patent Commercialization License: N6, a Novel, Broad, Highly Potent HIV-Specific Antibody and a Broadly Neutralizing Human Anti-HIV Monoclonal Antibody (10E8) Capable of Neutralizing Most HIV-1 Strains” (85 FR 41607). The technology is to be licensed to RNAceuticals, Inc., a company that does not have a website. When KEI was able to locate a phone number listed for the company, the person who answered our call refused to answer questions about the company or the license. There is no publicly available information regarding this company, and the NIH did not answer our questions regarding the company.
Additionally, while the title of the notice emphasizes the anti-HIV applications of the technology, the field of use as described in the body of the notice is broader than HIV alone, encompassing:
(1) Administration to humans of DNA and/or RNA including without limitation modified RNA encoding a protein or proteins, containing all or some of the CDRs of N6 and (2) Administration to humans of DNA and/or RNA including without limitation modified RNA encoding a protein or proteins, containing all or some of the CDRs of 10E8.
KEI’s full comments on the proposed exclusive license are available here: KEI_Comments_NIH_License_RNAceuticals_27July2020
Alongside the comments, on July 27, 2020 KEI also submitted the following joint letter regarding this license: Letter2Fauci.RNAceuticals.License.Geographic.Scope.27July2020
On July 30, 2020 KEI also jointly submitted a letter addressed to Dr. Anthony Fauci regarding this license. That letter is available here: https://www.keionline.org/33569
(For more KEI comments on NIH licenses, see: https://www.keionline.org/nih-licenses)