Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Patents
  • Published:

Is silence still golden? Mapping the RNAi patent landscape

The field of RNA interference has lately seen its fortunes diminish, but is the situation really that precarious?

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Aggregate time trends in PCT applications, US applications and patents, and EPO applications and patents, during 2000–2010.
Figure 2: Top patent assignees.
Figure 3: Portfolio trends for companies among the total top ten RNAi assignees.
Figure 4: RNAi delivery–related PCT, US and EPO patents and patent applications, in absolute numbers and as percent of total.

References

  1. Opko Health. Opko health announces update on phase III clinical trial of bevasiranib. http://investor.opko.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=369294 (Opko Health, 6 March 2009).

  2. Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. Alnylam and Cubist announce complete data from phase II study of ALN-RSV01 in lung transplants patients naturally infected with respiratory syncytial virus http://phx.corporate-ir.net/preview/phoenix.zhtml?c=148005&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1308924&highlight= (Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, 20 July 2009).

  3. Davis, M.E. et al. Nature 464, 1067–1070 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Couzin-Frankel, J. Science 330, 1163 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Macron, D. Pfizer to shut down oligo therapeutics unit as part of restructuring. Gene Silencing News http://www.genomeweb.com/rnai/pfizer-shut-down-oligo-therapeutics-unit-part-restructuring (3 February 2011).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Ledford, H. Nature 468, 487 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Pollack, A. Drugmaker's fever for the power of RNA interference has cooled. The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/science/08rna.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=rnai&st=cse (7 February 2011).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Fire, A. et al. Nature 391, 806–811 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Elbashir, S.M. et al. Nature 411, 494–498 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Lähteenmäki, R. & Lawrence, S. Nat. Biotechnol. 25, 729–737 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Yang, W. Nat. Biotechnol. 28, 116 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Huggett, B., Hodgson, J. & Lähteenmäki, R. Nat. Biotechnol. 27, 710–721 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. European Patent Office. Decision of the administrative council of 25 March 2009 amending the implementing regulations to the European Patent Convention (CA/D2/09). Official J. EPO 5, 296–298 (2010).

  14. Jones, D. Nat. Rev. Drug Discov. 8, 525–526 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Burgess, P. et al. Nat. Biotechnol. 28, 1267–1270 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. McLeod, B.W., Hayman, M.L., Purcell, A.L., Marcus, J.S. & Veithenheimer, E. Nat. Biotechnol. 29, 129–133 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank S. EL Andaloussi and C.I. Edvard Smith for valuable comments on the manuscript. This work was supported, in part, by the Swedish Cancer Society.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Per Lundin.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Tables 1 and 2 (PDF 61 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Lundin, P. Is silence still golden? Mapping the RNAi patent landscape. Nat Biotechnol 29, 493–497 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.1885

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.1885

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing