Our Intellectual Property

A portion of our competitive advantage rests on a unique combination of patent and patent pending Intellectual Property (IP) coupled with trade-secret know-how.  We have licensed exclusive rights to the patent applications covering the T2DN rat and the PharmGenix combinatorial rat panel from the Medical College of Wisconsin.

PharmGenix:

Methods and Compositions for Pharmacological and Toxicological Evaluation of Test Agents (U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/361,890, filed March 5, 2002, full patent filed March 2003). 

This invention relates to the methods for adding genetic diversity using combinatorial breeding of rodents to test the effects of drugs, chemicals and food ingredients.  The method can save considerable time and money by improving the accuracy of safety testing.  It also provides a method for determining the genetic basis of susceptibility or resistance to the actions of drugs and chemicals. Divisional patent applications are planned to apply the combinatorial testing approach to lower organism, agriculture and cell-based assays.

T2DNmimic:

A rat model of human diabetic nephropathy (U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/398,446 filed July 25, 2002, full patent filed, July 2003).  This invention covers the method used to genetically engineer the first diabetic rodent model that develops progressive diabetic nephropathy and renal lesions that resemble those seen in humans.  We believe this rat strain has great utility as a model system for testing compounds for the treatment of diabetic nephropathy and other complications of diabetes such as diabetic retinopathy, vascular disease, cardiac ischemia, stroke and peripheral neuropathy.  We utilize this strain to identify the genetic basis of diabetic nephropathy and diabetes.  Any genes that are identified may be patentable as new drug targets and diagnostic tests.  We also enjoy additional protection for this strain due to the fact that no other party (except its licensor) has physical possession of T2DN animals.

Non-patent based IP

We have obtained exclusive rights to use the consomic rat strains (44 strains total) from Medical College of Wisconsin. However, we still enjoy a considerable know-how, time and cost ($10-20 million) advantage over competitors that may choose to recreate this panel.  Although animals in this panel (as well as the Brown Norway and Dahl SS rats) are distributed through Charles River Labs, these animals are sold with restrictions on use (no breeding for re-sale allowed). It should also be recognized that we believe we have an advantage in knowledge and know-how, time and restrictions regarding breeding over competitors in the creation of subcongenic strains from the consomics to isolate regions of the genome that cure disease phenotypes.