Commonwealth Biotechnologies Inc., of Richmond, Va., received a notice of allowance for claims made in its patent application titled "Measuring Viral Reverse Transcriptase Activity."

Dynavax Technologies Corp., of Berkeley, Calif., was granted U.S. Patent No. 6,589,940 B1 covering its immunostimulatory DNA sequence (ISS) molecule called 1018 ISS. The privately held company said it uses the 1018 ISS molecule in four product candidates in clinical trials for allergy, asthma, hepatitis B and cancer.

GenVec Inc., of Gaithersburg, Md., was granted U.S. Patent No. 6,579,522 titled "Replication Deficient Adenoviral TNF Vector." Directed to its lead oncology product candidate, TNFerade, the patent covers the product composition and use of the TNF vector in treating tumors in mammals.

GroPep Ltd., of Thebarton, Australia, said U.S. Patent No. 6,586,394 was issued to OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Melville, N.Y., from which GroPep licenses the patent that covers the active ingredient in its infertility drug candidate, PV903.

Meyer Pharmaceuticals LLC, of Irvine, Calif., said the University of California at Irvine was awarded U.S. Patent No. 6,593,456 covering recombinant forms of the TNF receptor-releasing enzyme, a family of new biological agents for treating inflammatory disease. Meyer said it has an exclusive license to the technology rights.

Pharmaceutical Resources Inc., of Spring Valley, N.Y., was awarded U.S. Patent Nos. 6,593,318 and 6,593,320 relating to megestrol acetate oral suspension. The company said the patents collectively contain more than 70 additional claims related to its formulation of megestrol oral suspension.