Insmed Inc (INSM)

[jellybean]

Zake and wind,

Slow down. Unless you find a patent attorney that is versed in biotech and familiar with expression stuff, you will waste your time and not come up with an answer different than what you hear on this board. Remember that even a patent lawyer will not be able to predict the decision a jury will make. This is a very complicated patent situation; licensed drug, licenses just to hurt another company, battling patents, prior art....the list goes on and on. That is one of the reasons why Insmed trades at such a low premium.

The biggest risk to Insmed right now is the '414 patent. Remember that it took Genentech how many years to actually get the patent issued, and that it was not allowed in Europe. This speaks to the ease of which a patent examiner was able to justify the patent in light of the prior art.

Also remember that summary judgements almost always fall to the plaintiff. There were a lot of conflicts raised in the judges opinion. Tercica might think that they will "win" if only one claim is upheld; but what will they win? That will depend upon the jury. Patents are designed to protect American's entrepeneurial spirit. What is entrepeneurial about suing a company with store bought IP thereby putting the better drug out of business?

In closing, I'll leave you with two references from the early 90's. Notice the keywords in the titles: IGF-1 secreted fusion protein E. coli. Kind of makes you wonder.


http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/pagerender.fcgi?artid=1149562&pageindex=1

Biochem J. 1990 Oct 15;271(2):357-63.


Separation and characterization of modified variants of recombinant human insulin-like growth factor I derived from a fusion protein secreted from Escherichia coli.

So are these guys infringing also? Can you infringe retroactively?

Biochemistry. 1987 Aug 25;26(17):5239-44.

Expression of human insulin-like growth factor I in bacteria: use of optimized gene fusion vectors to facilitate protein purification.