Two university scientists lost their rights to ownership of a cancer therapy they discovered.
By Susie Gran
Tribune Reporter
The most expensive, most contentious and longest court battle involving the University of New Mexico and its scientists is over.
A federal appeals court this week upheld a 2001 trial court decision giving UNM ownership of a potential cancer cure discovered two decades ago in a campus laboratory.
"We do consider this the end of the litigation," said Charles N. "Nick" Estes Jr., university counsel emeritus.
The university spent approximately $541,000 on the case. Of that amount, $85,000 was spent on appeals.
"Undoubtedly, it was the most expensive case and the longest," Estes said. "It was in a class by itself."
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Tuesday affirmed UNM's rights to the patents on the discoveries and ordered two former UNM scientists to pay $63,887.33 in court costs for the four-year legal battle.
The university sued the scientists, Albuquerque biochemist Galen Knight and retired UNM professor emeritus Terence Scallen, in 1999 to become the legal owner of their revolutionary therapies for cancer.
The Albuquerque judge whose decision was upheld on appeal said "the real losers" in the case were cancer patients waiting for treatment.
U.S. District Judge John Conway, in his 2001 opinion, said it was unfortunate the case was not resolved outside the courtroom to benefit cancer patients.
Those patients still must "await a more promising treatment for their devastating diseases," Conway said.
The scientists, fought UNM for their discoveries in an attempt to get the patents corrected - they argue there are errors in the patent information - or returned to them for development, so that cancer patients would benefit.
"In this decade of suppression and concealment of our work, more than 10 million Americans have died of diseases (cancer and heart disease) known to be responsive to therapies that Terry and I discovered," Knight said.
"If this decision stands, Terry and I will each be punished by more than $30,000 for refusing to help UNM and its licensee steal the inventions, not counting the tens of thousands of dollars it has cost us to try and defend our discoveries and scientific proofs," Knight said.
The courts awarded to UNM all of the scientists' inventions and patents on chemical compounds that stimulate the immune system to destroy cancer cells.
UNM licensed exclusive rights to commercialize the therapies to Dovetail Technologies Inc. of Maryland. Dovetail's sister company, Lifetime Pharmaceuticals, has advertised its lead compound from UNM, Beta LT (beta-alethine), as a "low toxicity drug (that) will have applications for the over $100 billion infectious diseases market."
However, the drug has not been widely tested. Early clinical trials in Canada and the United States were reported in 2001 for 31 patients, showing tumor reduction for patients with functioning immune systems.
If the drug ever hits the pharmaceutical market, UNM will be paid royalties.
"That would be wonderful for mankind and UNM," said university lawyer Estes.
However, the scientists will not be paid any royalties until UNM recovers its legal expenses, he said.
Knight and Scallen claim that Beta LT is not the most effective of their therapies. They claim UNM failed to develop their inventions in violation of university patent policy.
Knight and Scallen defended themselves in the case because they couldn't afford lawyers.
Print this
HOME
