Intellectual Property

GenOdyssee owns a broad, diverse and balanced portfolio of technology and product patents consisting in 33 accepted patents and 20 pending patents in a total of 15 countries including the EU and the USA

Examination procedures by the international patent offices in both the EU and the US have not revealed any relevant prior art to the natural evolution technology invented by the company, highlighting the novelty, inventiveness and uniqueness in the industry of such technology. All sequencing and genotyping technologies intended for the identification of naturally improved human therapeutics-cytokines and growth factors are protected by the Company’s patent portfolio. The current scope of protection covers applications to therapeutic cytokines and growth factors and could be extended to other classes of therapeutic agents if further demonstrated.

The Company’s proprietary natural evolution technology is the sole property of the Company

The Company owns 6 families of patents, split between the following pioneer technology & products patents:

Natural evolution technology IP: 1 family of patents granted in the EU, pending in the USA
“Method for providing natural therapeutic agents with high therapeutic index”: EU patent n°03 785 733 and US patent application n°10/534,098, that protect the company’s proprietary method of drug discovery and its therapeutic product applications. Status: granted in the EU and pending in the USA

IFNs Alfa products IP: 4 families of patents and patent applications granted in the EU, the USA and other locations
1) Lead HCV drug candidate GEA007.1 IP: PCT/EP02/05229; EP 1390 543; US 2004110715; Status: granted in the EU, the USA, France, Australia, Israel, India, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, and New Zealand; pending in Japan, China, Brazil, Canada, Rep. Korea, and Norway
2) Immunotherapy drug candidate GEA009.2 IP: PCT/EP02/04082; EP 1379 695; US 2004132139; Status: granted in the EU, the USA, France, Australia, Israel, India, Singapore, and South Africa; pending in Japan, China, Canada, and Rep. Korea
3) PCT/EP02/05458; EP 1383 895; US20040142431A1; Status: granted in the EU, the USA, and France; pending in Japan
4) PCT/EP02/07456; EP 1395 684; US2004126799; Status: granted in the EU, the USA, and France

ESA product GO-EPO IP: 1 family of patents granted in the EU, the USA and other locations
PCT/EP02/ 04331; EP 1383 927; US20030050269; Status: granted in both the EU and the USA, France, Australia, Israel, India, Singapore, and South Africa; pending in Canada, China, and Rep. Korea

Summary:

Number of patents filed by GenOdyssee worldwide	53
Number of pending patents	20
Number of granted patents so far (2010)	33
Number of in-licensed patent rights (therapeutic protein production processes)	187
Number of patent families filed or in-licensed by GenOdyssee	26

The discovery of natural genetic mutations in the human population that confer superiority to therapeutic proteins appears to be original in the industry and is the property of GenOdyssee.

In 1999 and 2000, most companies and academic institutions working in the genetic variability area were looking for natural mutations that confer deleterious effects to corresponding host genes or proteins and would highlight an association of such genes to diseases of interest in the population. In particular, the industry was looking for mutations in the population to discover novel drug targets or diagnostic tools. GenOdyssee adopted a faster, more direct approach to discovery of new therapeutics. GenOdyssee’s drug discovery process has brought two main innovations to the industry:

A new paradigm in genetic variation: screen representative human population DNA samples for genetic alterations conferring advantageous (not deleterious) pharmacological properties to host human genes.

A direct drug (not drug target) identification process using natural genetic variability. Each human therapeutic protein variant showing superior pharmacological properties becomes a potential drug candidate.

GenOdyssee's product IP strategy derived from the findings made by the company that some novel human allelic variants of therapeutic cytokines identified using the company's proprietary drug discovery process demonstrate unprecedented and "non obvious " (innovative) pharmacological profiles. In other words, such pharmacological profiles appeared to be not predictable using prior art or state-of-the art gene or protein sequence variation analysis technologies:

Non predictable level and/or slope (higher or lower) of activity variation. Examples: GEA007.1: 10 to 100 fold higher antiviral activity compared IFN alpha 2a or 2b; GO-EPO: up to 10 fold (erythroid cell proliferation assay) more potent than WT EPO

Non predictable & brand new dissociation of pleiotropic activity spectrum. Example: GEA009.2: more potent immunomodulation profile while demonstrating improved tolerability, compared to IFN alpha 2