Eli Lilly Obtains Patent on SARS Vaccine

Eli Lilly world head quarters, Indianapolis, Indiana.

Eli Lilly and Company, headquartered in Indianapolis, IN, is a globally renowned developer of pharmaceutical products that has been operating since 1876. Although typically a leader in the pharmaceutical industry, Eli Lilly has struggled in recent years thanks patent expirations, such as the expiration of the patent for the prescription depression drug Cymbalta. Still, recent press releases from the company are optimistic and outline a number of initiatives related to treatments for diabetes, gastric cancer and lung cancer.

Today, we profile Eli Lilly and Company for the first time in its Companies We Follow series. This medicinal treatment research and development company is seen fairly regularly as a patent applicant to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. To get an idea of the future of American pharmaceuticals, we’re taking a look at a number of patent applications and issued patent assigned to Eli Lilly from the USPTO.

Not all of Eli Lilly and Company’s developments are strictly related to human health. Today’s featured patent application discusses a form of dietary additive for animals that can reduce the chances of insect populations thriving on manure. The new dietary additive formula is much safer to animals and the environment than previous additives. Other patent applications include a few inhibitor treatments to reduce the progression of cancer, as well as an application that discusses improvements to medication dose delivery devices.

We also look at a few issued patents that improve the portfolio of Eli Lilly’s patent holdings. Three of these patents protect improved methods of treating various diseases, including diabetes, tumors and hyperlipidemias. Another patent protects a method of creating a vaccine for the infectious viral disease SARS. Finally, we look at a patent that discusses a method of healing wounds that utilizes naturally occurring, low-toxicity spinosyns.

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Issued Patents of Note

From U.S. Patent No. 8506968, titled “SARS Vaccine Compositions and Methods of Making and Using Them.”

Every week, the USPTO also awards a number of patents to companies from all over the world, and Eli Lilly and Company has been the recipient of a number of these in the past few months. Because of IPWatchdog’s interest in profiling the patent portfolios of the businesses we feature in our Companies We Follow series, we’re bringing you some of the more recent issued patents awarded to Eli Lilly that we felt were intriguing.

Recently, Eli Lilly was awarded a number of patents that improve it’s pharmaceutical treatment offerings for a number of chronic health conditions. For instance, U.S. Patent No. 8530414, issued under the title Antibodies to PCSK9 and Uses Thereof, protects a treatment for hyperlipidemia and hypercholesterolemia that involves antibodies which inhibit the production of low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). Another cancer treatment is protected by U.S. Patent No. 8530665, entitled Crystalline (R)-(E)-2-(4-(2-(5-(1-(3,5-dichloropyridin-4-yl)ethoxy)-1H-indazol-3-yl)vinyl)-1H-pyrazol-1-yl)ethanol. This medication inhibits signaling patterns from the fibroblast growth factor receptor, which can reduce tumor cell proliferation. Diabetes and related conditions are the target of U.S. Patent No. 8455433, titled Process for Solubilizing Glucagon-Like Peptide 1 Compounds. These compounds can stimulate the secretion of insulin within the body, helping to treat patients against those illnesses.

A few patents related to infectious diseases and wound are also among the recent offering from the USPTO assigned to Eli Lilly and Company. U.S. Patent No. 8536142, which has been titled Spinosyns for Wound Healing, utilizes the same spinosad materials mentioned in our featured patent application section. These spinosyns are also capable of improving a patient’s ability to heal from wounds when applied to the affected area as a pharmaceutical salt. Finally, U.S. Patent No. 8506968, entitled SARS Vaccine Compositions and Methods of Making and Using Them, protects a system of delipidating viral compounds, especially compounds making up the SARS virus, for reintroduction into a patient as a SARS vaccine.

The SARS vaccine patent is perhaps the most newsworthy given the virility of the virus and widespread fears associated with the 2003 outbreak. According to the CDC there have not been any known outbreaks of SARS since 2004, but there are currently no known treatments for SARS and the threat of a worldwide epidemic certainly concerns health officials worldwide.

The Abstract of the SARS vaccine patent explains the invention in a nutshell as follows:

“Described is a composition and method for reducing the occurrence and severity of infectious diseases, especially infectious diseases such as SARS, in which lipid-containing infectious viral organisms are found in biological fluids, such as blood. The present invention employs solvents useful for extracting lipids from the lipid-containing infectious viral organism thereby creating immunogenic modified, partially delipidated viral particles with reduced infectivity. The present invention provides delipidated viral vaccine compositions, such as therapeutic vaccine compositions, comprising these modified, partially delipidated viral particles with reduced infectivity, optionally combined with a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier or an immunostimulant. The vaccine composition is administered to a patient to provide protection against the lipid-containing infectious viral organism or, in case of a therapeutic vaccine, to treat or alleviate infection against the lipid-containing infections viral organism. The vaccine compositions of the present invention include combination vaccines of modified viral particles obtained from one or more strains of a virus and/or one or more types of virus.”

Patent Applications of Note

From U.S. Patent Application No. 20130164304, titled “Anti-Hepcidin Antibodies and Uses Thereof.”

Several patent applications published recently by the USPTO are fairly telling as far as Eli Lilly and Company’s future plans concerning pharmaceutical developments. IPWatchdog is noticing a fair amount of patent applications that suggest the Indiana corporation is greatly interested in increasing their cancer treatment offerings. For instance, U.S. Patent Application No. 20130237562, entitled PI3 Kinase/mTOR Dual Inhibitor, discusses a form of pharmaceutical salt that could be used to suppress both phosphoinositide 3-kinases (PI3) and the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) to slow the progression of most cancers. Pharmaceutical salt applications for cancer treatments are also featured in U.S. Patent Application No. 20130190262, which is titled Compositions Useful for Inhibiting Chk1. This formula helps suppress the creation of the protein kinase Chk1, which can cause defects during DNA replication and cancerous cell division.

Eli Lilly is also hoping to increase its patent portfolio in regards to treatments for other types of diseases, such as anemia. U.S. Patent Application No. 20130164304, filed under the title of Anti-Hepcidin Antibodies and Uses Thereof, would protect a treatment capable of reducing hepcidin production in the human liver. Overproduction of this hormone is often exacerbates the symptoms of anemia and anemia-related diseases. Improving medical hardware is another aim of this company, as is evidenced by U.S. Patent Application No. 20130184653. Entitled Gearing Mechanism for a Dose Delivery Device, this application would protect a gear assembly for easier and more precise dosing adjustments for medication delivery devices.

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Methods for Inhibiting Insect Infestations
U.S. Patent Application No. 20130210755

While researching Eli Lilly this patent application caught our attention. You might not expect a pharmaceutical company to be seeking a patent on a method of inhibiting insect infestations, but that is precisely what Eli Lilly is attempting to do.

One of the greater concerns of professionals in agricultural settings, especially those that involve herding and caring for livestock, is the growth of insect pest populations. These insect infestations can create a host of issues for animals, such as increasing the risk of spreading disease among animals. One great difficulty involved in ridding insects from an area is their ability to live and grow in manure waste given off by livestock.

One means of reducing insect populations in manure is by adding feed-through controls as dietary additives to livestock feed. These additives are capable of ensuring that livestock manure contains the necessary materials to disrupt the life cycle of pests when administered regularly. However, these additives can cause a variety of problems, including increased risk of toxicity, environmental safety concerns and can increase bacterial resistance.

This patent application would protect a new formula for dietary additives to be used as feed-through controls for livestock manure. This formula utilizes spinosyns, a fermentation product naturally derived from sugars, utilized with a carrier agent to delay agent delivery until digestion. Spinosyn agents, also known as spinosads, are insecticides that carry a very low toxicity profile for both humans and animals.

This spinosad formula can be used in other preparations for dietary additives, such as a controlled reaction with an acid to form a spinosyn salt. A wide range of reactive acids can be used for this salt creation process, including citric acid, sorbic acid, benzoic acid, lactic acid and stearic acid. The patent application’s description section contains a lot of language about insects that survive in equine manure, suggesting that this formula would be primarily used in horse feed.

Claim 56 (Claims 1 through 55 cancelled) of this patent application would give Eli Lilly the right to protect:

“ A method of controlling an equine feces-dependent insect which comprises orally administering an effective feed-through amount of a spinosyn to an equine animal for a sufficient time, wherein said administration is in the form of a tablet, capsule, bolus, solution, paste, gel, feed, premix, suspension, or elixir, and said effective feed-through amount results in said spinosyn being present in said feces of said equine animal in an amount of about 2 to about 50 ppm.”