This notice was published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, November 18, 1997, pp 61519-61920 [62 FR 61519]
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
National Institutes of Health
Prospective Grant of Exclusive License: Immunodampening Technology
AGENCY: National Institutes of Health, Public Health Service, DHHS
ACTION: Notice
SUMMARY: This is notice in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 209(c)(1) and 37 CFR 404.7(a)(1)(i) that the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Health and Human Services, is contemplating the grant of an exclusive world-wide license to practice the invention embodied in U.S. Patent Number 5,585,250 and pending U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 08/764,575 both entitled "Dampening of an Immunodominant Epitope of an Antigen for Use in Plant, Animal and Human Compositions and Immunotherapies" and related foreign patent applications to Biological Memetics, Inc., of Frederick, Maryland. The patent rights in this invention have been assigned to the United States of America.
It is anticipated that this license will be limited to the field of vaccines for the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases in animals and humans.
DATE: Only written comments and/or applications for a license which are received by NIH on or before February 17, 1998 will be considered.
ADDRESS: Requests for a copy of the patent and/or patent application, inquiries, comments and other materials relating to the contemplated license should be directed to: Robert Benson, Patent Advisor, Office of Technology Transfer, National Institutes of Health, 6011 Executive Blvd., Suite 325, Rockville, MD 20852-3804; Telephone: (301) 496-7056, x267; Facsimile: (301) 402-0220.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The patent and pending patent application describe a broadly applicable method of redirecting the immune response to an antigen from an immunodominant epitope to another epitope by altering the immunogenicity of the immunodominant epitope. The method is most useful for those pathogens with a highly variable immunodominant epitope, such as HIV, HCV or gonorrhea. By immunodampening the dominant epitope the immune system then reacts to other more conserved epitopes.
The prospective exclusive license will be royalty-bearing and will comply with the terms and conditions of 35 U.S.C. 209 and 37 CFR 404.7. This prospective exclusive license may be granted unless within 90 days from the date of this published notice, NIH receives written evidence and argument that establishes that the grant of the license would not be consistent with the requirements of 35 U.S.C. 209 and 37 CFR 404.7.
Applications for a license filed in response to this notice will be treated as objections to the grant of the contemplated license. Comments and objections submitted to this notice will not be made available for public inspection and, to the extent permitted by law, will not be released under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. ' 552.
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