On February 9, 2021, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) submitted comments to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) regarding the “Prospective Grant of an Exclusive Patent License: Development and Commercialization of Cell Therapies for Cancer” to Ziopharm Oncology, Inc. (Ziopharm). The technology to be licensed concerns T-cell therapies to treat human cancers.
The prospective exclusive license was announced in the Federal Register (86 FR 6892), and it appears that it amends a previous license to expand the patented technologies included in the license. The original license was noticed in February 2019, and subsequently amended in October 2019 and again in July 2020.
KEI has commented on all of the previous public comment periods regarding this evolving and expanding license for an emerging important treatment area. KEI’s previous comments are available here:
- KEI Comments – February 2019. 84 FR 2537.
- KEI Comments – October 2019. 84 FR 52890.
- KEI Comments – July 2020. 85 FR 36872.
As the NIH keeps amending and expanding this license, it is important that it takes every opportunity to include license terms that ensure affordable access to patients for any therapy that arises from this license.
KEI’s full comments to the NIH for the instant license to Ziopharm are available here: KEI_Comments_NIH_License_Ziopharm_9Feb2021