ISTA Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Irvine, Calif., was granted U.S. Patent No. 6,551,590 B2 covering the use of certain preparations of hyaluronidase derived from any source (including bovine and ovine sources) for ophthalmic administration and enzymatic methods for accelerating the clearance of hemorrhagic blood from the vitreous body of the eye.

Life Medical Sciences Inc., of Oceanport, N.J., received U.S. Patent No. 6,579,951 covering resorbable polymeric materials exhibiting reverse thermal gelation properties that it said could be used for implantable drug and cell delivery, gene therapy and sealants, as well as in its main focus of post-operative adhesion prevention products.

Medicure Inc., of Winnipeg, Manitoba, was issued U.S. Patent No. 6,586,141 titled "Treatment of Cerebrovascular Disease," protecting the use of several of its therapeutics for stroke and related conditions.

Oxford BioMedica plc, of Oxford, UK, received a notice of allowance for a patent covering its LentiVector technology, complimenting a prior patent issued in November 2001. Both include broad composition-of-matter claims and methods-of-production claims for lentiviral vector gene delivery systems of both human and nonhuman origin.

SemBioSys Genetics Inc., of Calgary, Alberta, received U.S. Patent Nos. 6,582,710 and 6,596,287 titled "Products for Topical Applications Comprising Oilbodies," broadly covering oilbody-based formulations for topical applications.