The patent claims methods for making monoclonal antibodies using recombinant DNA technology, specifically for producing a “functional immunoglobulin molecule or ... fragment by transforming a single host cell, with a first DNA sequence encoding immunoglobulin heavy chain and a second DNA sequence encoding immunoglobulin light chain, and independently expressing the first DNA sequence and second DNA sequence so that [the] heavy chain and light chain are produced as separate molecules in said transformed single host cell.”
This decision to issue the patent comes after it was initially rejected twice because it was thought to cover the same invention described in an earlier Genentech patent. This time, the examiner noted that the host cell in the earlier patent is transformed with either immunoglobulin heavy chain or immunoglobulin light chain, but not both independently. Moreover, it was deemed that a person would not have been able to modify the claims of the earlier patent in accordance with the teachings of the prior art references to produce the invention described in the Cabilly patent.
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