Anadys Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego, was issued two patents for screening small molecules against RNA for drug discovery. The two patents are U.S. Patent No. 6,331,392 titled “Screen Employing Fluorescence Anisotrophy to Identify Compounds With Affinity for Nucleic Acids” and U.S. Patent No. 6,337,183 titled “Screen for Compounds with Affinity for Nucleic Acids.”

BioTrove Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., was issued U.S. Patent No. 6,309,600 titled “Apparatus for Droplet Microchemistry.” The patent grants protection for the core features of BioTrove’s Lab-on-a-Tape technology platform.

BresaGen Ltd., of Adelaide, Australia, parent company of Athens, Ga.-based BresaGen Inc., was issued a second U.S. patent in relation to its anticancer drug E21R. It is a “method of use” patent that protects the apoptotic activity of E21R, relevant to destroying the malignant cells that develop in myeloid leukemia.

Celgene Corp., of Warren, N.J., was issued U.S. Patent No. 6,342,595 covering JNK (c-Jun N-terminal kinase) targets that are the foundation for identifying JNK inhibitors with potential to treat a wide range of serious diseases.

Copernicus Therapeutics Inc., of Cleveland, was awarded U.S. Patent No. 6,339,065 for episomal vector for human gene therapy. This nonviral expression vector was designed to express therapeutic genes at very high levels in cancer patients.

DepoMed Inc., of Menlo Park, Calif., was awarded U.S. Patent No. 6,340,475 titled “Extending the Duration of Drug Release Within the Stomach During the Fed Mode.” The patent covers DepoMed’s Metformin GR and Ciprofloxacin tablets, which are in Phase III and Phase II clinical trials, respectively.

Epimmune Inc., of San Diego, was issued a notice of allowance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office covering core technology for the identification and enhancement elimination of epitopes responsible for activating a class of immune T cells known as helper T cells.