(Update: The NIH provided a response to our comments on January 19, 2021)
On January 12, 2021, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) submitted comments to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) regarding the “Prospective Grant of an Exclusive Patent License: Use of A CD47 Phosphorodiamidate Morpholino Oligomer for the Treatment, Prevention, and Diagnosis Of Cancer,” as noticed in the Federal Register (85 FR 84359).
The technology is to be licensed to Morphiex Biotherapeutics, a company based in Boston, MA, regarding which KEI has commented on three previous prospective licenses:
- 2018: Comments on Morphiex Biotherapeutics license
- 2019: KEI comments on NIH prospective license to Morphiex on CD47 for solid tumors
Since the NIH does not publish records concerning granted exclusive licenses, KEI does not have information regarding which, or how many, of these exclusive licenses have been granted to Morphiex.
The exclusive license at hand is to be worldwide, with a field of use “… for the treatment, prevention, and diagnosis of cancer.” With such a broad indication, KEI advised that the license include terms that address price discrimination, transparency, and other provisions to protect the public interest.
A PDF of KEI’s full comments is available here: KEI_NIH_Comments_Exclusive_License_Morphiex_12Jan2021