A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Vermillion (Fremont, California) reported that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a re-examination certificate of U.S. patent No. 6,734,022, which is directed to a fundamental process of SELDI mass spectrometry.

As a result of the patent reissuance, Bio-Rad Laboratories (Hercules, California) is expected to pay Vermillion $2 million pursuant to the terms of the asset purchase agreement entered into in connection with the sale of Vermillion’s instrumentation business to Bio-Rad on Nov. 13, 2006.

“We believe this patent further validates the innovation underlying SELDI technology and look forward to receiving Bio-Rad’s payment,” said Gail Page, president/CEO of Vermillion. “We continue to make excellent progress translating the SELDI-enabled biomarker discoveries into novel, high-value molecular diagnostic tests.”

Vermillion is focused on the development of diagnostic tests.

In other patent news:

Imaging Diagnostic Systems (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) a developer of laser optical breast cancer imaging systems, reported that a patent, “Laser Imaging Apparatus Using Biomedical Markers That Bind to Cancer Cells” was issued to IMDS by the Chinese government.

The Chinese patent, ZL 99 8 16608.1, joins the Australian patent 775069, issued July 2004; European patent EP01181511, issued June 2005; Hong Kong patent HK1043480, issued January 2006; and German patent DE69925869, issued May 2006.

The patents, along with a previously issued Canadian patent, are equivalents of U.S. patent No. 5,952,644. They protect the concept of imaging and activating a photodynamic therapy agent in an optical CT scanner, a combined diagnostic and therapeutic system.

This is the second patent issued to IMDS in China.

• VISICU (Baltimore), a healthcare information technology and clinical solutions company focused on critical care, reported two developments regarding its intellectual property portfolio.

First, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a reexamination certificate allowing all 26 amended claims of the VISICU patent. This patent describes a system and method for providing continuous, expert network critical care services from a remote location, which has demonstrated success in reducing hospital mortality rates and length of stays for the sickest patients, according to the company.

Second, VISICU was granted a new patent on August 14 titled, “A Telecommunication Network for Remote Patient Monitoring.”