Industry Briefs

From Q To GLQ223 Eight months after the FDA stopped a San Francisco group from giving an unauthorized drug called Compound Q to HIV-infected patients, another version of the drug will be dispensed to the same patients - this time by a pharmaceutical company and a biotechnology company now clinically testing the compound. Derived from a plant protein imported from China, Compound Q had been offered in 1988 and 1989 to between 80 and 100 patients by Project Inform, an AIDS advocacy group. Genelabs Inc., a Redwood City, Calif.-based biotech firm, holds the rights to a purified form of the compound, which it has patented for possible use as an AIDS drug under the trademark GLQ223. Sandoz Ltd., of Basel, Switzerland, owns its worldwide marketing rights. Genelabs is offering the drug free to Project Inform's previous Compound Q patients, and Sandoz is giving the organization $250,000 to defray the project's other expenses, while the firms test the drug's toxicity in standard FDA Phase I trials. David Winter, Sandoz's vice president for scientific and external affairs, says that the results of Project Inform treatment could provide some useful data. Praising Project Inform's efforts, Winter affirms that "there is a role for community-based groups in drug development and our role is building an infrastructure for community-based drug testing." Patent Truths A new index of the challenges posed by foreign inventors to U.S. science is provided by the National Technical Information Service, which has just released a report offering a statistical analysis of U.S. patent recipients in the last 20 years. Industrial Patent Activity in the United States, Parts 1 and 2 reports that in the years between 1963 and 1974, three quarters of all U.S. patents were awarded to U.S. firms, individuals, and government agencies. In 1975, however, the figure dropped to 65 percent, while 35 percent of the patent grants went abroad. Through the 1970s and 1980s, the gap continued to narrow, so that by 1988, the last year for which figures are available, U.S. inventors accounted for 52 percent of all U.S. patents, Japanese inventors were awarded 21 percent of the patents, and the rest were awarded to other foreign inventors, corporations, and agencies. (The dip in the 1979 figures in the accompanying chart is attributed to a paperwork backlog at the Patent Office.) The report also notes that since 1969, the top U.S. patent recipient has been General Electric Co., with 16,939 patents. But even this superiority is threatened. While GE was awarded 690 patents in 1988, Hitachi, Ltd. of Tokyo, now No. 6 on the list, earned 907. For information on getting the two-part, 968-page report, call NTIS at (703) 487-4650. Somoclonal Munchies All right, you, drop those rippled, ranch-flavored Crisp Salt Puffs; scientists at DNA Plant Technology Inc. have developed two tastier, healthier snack foods: carrots and celery. This great step forward - marketed under the name VegiSnax - is made possible through a technique called somoclonal variation, which induces rapid genetic changes in single plant cells and then produces whole plants from those cells. The Cinnaminson, N.J., firm says the results are superior to ordinary vegetables in taste and texture. Improved processing will give the produce a longer shelf life, according to William MacDowell, president of Freshworld Inc., the Doylestown, Pa., joint venture that DNA Plant Technology formed with DuPont Co. to develop the product. Marketing of VegiSnax has begun in West Coast supermarkets, with national distribution planned in two years.

Industry Briefs

The Scientist Staff

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