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Test an Insight
In 2007, Charlie Schmidt wrote about the prosecution of the Kreutzer-Limmer patents, which describe blunt-ended oligonucleotides. Our 2008 RNAi patent database contained 12 organizations and 27 patents that describe blunt-ended oligonucleotides. Two patents predated the K-L patents. We drew our observations from measurements in the blut-end Visual Index in our RNAi science and technology database.
Of course, legal analysis is required, but in very little time, we could frame the issue to present to the attorneys for analysis.
Think out of the box
One of the hottest and knottiest problem in the economy today is alternative fuel! From our science and technology mapping (as of 2008) suggests that RNAi has the potential to revolutionize crops that lead to biofuel. RNAi could be a key for making biofuels an economic reality. Oddly as of 2008, only a few organizations had figured this out, and they are not the big players in agricultural applications of RNAi!
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Look for an acquisition or look for a partner
In 2006, Merck purchased SIRNA for $1.1 billion dollars. Aaron Smith of CNNMoney wrote ?Merck's billion-dollar deal for SIRNA "is a risky bet on a biotech with no proven products on the market..." While others speculated, we could see in our RNAi science and technology mpas that in almost every segment SIRNA’s portfolio strengthened Merck’s hand. We drew our conclusions from measurements in the Company Matrix...
Look for technology.
In 2008, Gareth Macdonald wrote that effective delivery is major stumbling block in the therapeutic application of RNAi. Our analysis suggest that there are several general classes of delivery. For research the viral vector is still in first place. For human therapeutics, lipid particle and nanotechnology lead. A Visual Index™ for nanoparticles or microparticles reveals dozens of companies with 2 or more patents and dozens more with just one patent, enabling an efficient and informed search for a partner or acquisition.
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See into the future accurately!
Epigenetics has been defined as any process that alters gene activity without changing the DNA sequence, and leads to modifications that can be transmitted to daughter cells (Link). By modeling RNAi and epigenetic activity in BOTH patents and the scientific literature, our measurements clearly showed that the combination of epigenetics and RNAi was (as of 2008) still in an early exploratory phase.
Stem cell research is another hot topic. Patenting and publication activity in stem cells is almost off the scale large, but less than 1000 patents connect RNAi and stem cells as of 2008. We could clearly see RNAi being used influence stem cell culturing, but there were surprisingly few connections between RNAi and stem cells used in brain or CNS issues such as Parkinson's disease. The combined use of RNAi and stem cell in therapy is a grayish space. It was not too small as of 2008 and it is growing. Organizations that wait too long now will miss the open window!
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Search for adjacent markets or alternative markets.
Our measurements suggest that RNAi is likely to be used most often in human therapy, but RNAi can be used to develop plants for agricultural applications. In our 2008 RNAi science and technology database, 20% of the patents related to plants and agriculture. It is hard to miss an adjacent market that big, but only a few players have focused on this adjacent area.
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