Method of testing myelotoxicity with the use of flow cytometer

Patent Number: 7,300,763

Development of chemotherapeutic drugs is dependent on proper animal preclinical toxicology systems. These systems are very important since chemotherapeutic drugs usually have a very small margin in which tumor toxicity is achieved but healthy tissue is not completely destroyed.

One of the first body systems to go during chemotherapeutic dose escalation is the hematopoietic system. This is why it is essential to test hematopoietic toxicity of chemotherapeutic drugs in preclinical development.

The current patent blocks people from using the markers CD45, CD45R, CD71, or CD90 for detection of hematopoietic toxicity by a flow cytometer. Essentially this patent is important of companies performing preclinical research.

The question however comes..since these experiments are performed for submission to the FDA..then maybe you do not need to license this patent since it comes under the "research use" exemption as described in the Merck v Integra case.

View this patent on the USPTO website.