Novartis Vaccines (formerly Chiron Corp.) Suffers Loss in Long-running Interference Battle over HIV Diagnostic Assays

On Wedndesday, the USPTO published its decision that certain Novartis Vaccines and Diagnotics (formerly Chiron Corp.) inventors were not entitled to patent protection covering certain "Methods For Detecting Human Immunodeficiency Virus Nuclaeic Acid" claimed in US Patent no. 6,531,276. According tot he USPTO, National Institute of Health inventors successfully developed and tested an HIV hybridization assay in May 1984, predating the earliest allowable priority date for Novartis/Chiron. This loss echos an earlier ruling in December 2006 by the USPTO in an interference between Novartis/Chiron and the French research institution, Institut Pasteur concerning proper inventorship of the '276 patent. Novartis/Chiron sought review of that ruling in US District Court, and a similar lawsuit could be expected in response to the USPTO most recent findings regarding the '276 patent.