Resources - Antiviral Agents Bulletin

ANTIVIRAL AGENTS BULLETIN, a 32-page newsletter published 12
times a year by the Biotechnology Information Institute,
covers "commercial and scientific developments, federal and
regulatory activities, information resources, treatment
advances and trends, patents, and technology transfers.
Abstracts of all antiviral and virus-related U.S. patents,
announcements of international patent disclosures, and
abstracts of recent journal articles are also included. An
annual review issue describes the year's developments and
indexes articles by agent, virus/disease, and organization.
U.S. patents are indexed in another issue." The newsletter
has a strong HIV focus, "reflecting the dominance of HIV in
antiviral research and development."

Each issue includes abstracts of several dozen U.S. patents,
and also lists of several dozen international patents:

Non-U.S. patent disclosures are important because they are
often the first public disclosure of commercially-significant
developments, and may be the only public disclosure of
unpublished work. Most non-U.S. patent applications become
available at a certain point after filing, usually 18 months.
U.S. patents are only publicly disclosed after granting,
which usually requires at least 2-3 years from filing of the
application.

Emphasis is on early pre-issuance disclosures from major
patenting countries and international bodies including the
European Patent Office (EPO), World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO), major European countries, and Japan.

Full copies of international patents may be requested through
your in-house library, local research libraries, or
commercial document delivery services.

The international listings include only the title, country,
application number, date of disclosure, inventors, and patent
owner. It is not difficult to obtain the full copy, however,
given the application number. [Note that in many cases
companies are eager to publish their AIDS-related
developments, and information appears in journals before the
patent application is released.]

The April issue includes the following news stories:

* HHV-6 Further Linked to AIDS;

* Antigen-Coated Diamond Particle HIV Vaccines;

* Thalidomide Enters Phase II Trials;

* Oral Hypericin Trials Begin/Blood Disinfection
Demonstrated; and

* Anti-HIV Calanolides and Costatolides Available for
Licensing.

Recent U.S. patents abstracted include:

* An antiviral antibiotic complex, BU-3889V and its
components, useful for treatment of HIV, herpesvirus and
influenza virus infections, patented by Bristol-Myers Squibb
Co. (U.S. patent #5,286,649);

* Antisense phosphorothioate oligonucleotides for treatment
of retroviral infections, patented by the U.S. Public Health
Service/NIH (5,286,717);

* Use of antioxidant or anti-inflammatory thiol-repleting
methionine or methionine derivatives for treatment of HIV
infection (5,292,773);

* Pyridazinamines for treatment of viral infections, patented
by Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson
(5,292,738);

Some international patents to be listed in the May issue:

* Retroviral protease inhibitors, SmithKline Beecham Corp.
(EPO 538366);

* Peptides that induce antibodies which neutralize
genetically divergent HIV-1 isolates (EPO 570357);

* Therapeutic anti-HIV oligonucleotide and pharmaceutical
(Hybridon Inc.) (WIPO 9408004); and

* Human neutralizing monoclonal antibodies to human
immunodeficiency virus, by Scripps Research Institute (WIPO
9407922);

ANTIVIRAL AGENTS BULLETIN is available for $350 per year
($410 per year outside of North America, including air mail
delivery) from the Biotechnology Information Institute, 1700
Rockville Pike, Suite 400, Rockville, MD 20852, phone
301/424-0255, fax 301/424-0257. A sample issue is available
free -- or perhaps your university or research library could
subscribe.