Ixsys Inc. said it obtained exclusive rights to technology forsynthesizing DNA, RNA, proteins and peptides, giving the privatelyheld company potential broad patent claims on the production of anyDNA-based compounds from combinatorial libraries using randomoligonucleotides.

San Diego-based Ixsys today announced it has licensed thetechnology from its inventors, Marc Ballivet at the University ofGeneva in Switzerland and Stuart Kauffman at the Sante Fe Institutein New Mexico. The technology covers the construction and use ofcombinatorial libraries to create peptides, proteins and antibodies andhas been patented in the U.K., France, Switzerland and some Asiancountries.

A patent application for the Kauffman-Ballivet technology was filedin the U.S. in 1985, but has not yet been issued.

Ixsys's CEO, John Kenward, said the company licensed thetechnology as a means of protecting its own patented codon-basedmutagenesis, a procedure that permits the rapid alteration of codonsin a gene sequence and results in production of peptides andantibodies with enhanced specificity and efficacy.

Kenward said many companies create peptides and proteins fromcombinatorial libraries, so Ixsys licensed the Kauffman-Ballivettechnology as "umbrella coverage" for its more specific approach,which was patented in 1993. He said terms of the licensing agreementwere not disclosed.

Suzanne Zebedee, Ixsys' director of business development, said, "Allcompanies that have combinatorial library methods for creatingDNA-based compounds may infringe a patent issued for theKauffman-Ballivet technology."

She said Ixsys intends to "defend and prosecute" all potential patentinfringements, but also plans to offer sub-licenses for the company'spatent portfolio.

Zebedee said much of the work by companies and institutions usingcombinatorial libraries to synthesize DNA-based compounds is stillin early stages of development. n

-- Charles Craig

(c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.