On Thursday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced the latest winners of the Patents for Humanity program. The Patents for Humanity program, which was launched by the Office in February 2012 as part of an Obama Administration initiative to promote game-changing innovations to solve long-standing development challenges, is a competition recognizing patent owners and licensees who address global challenges in health and standards of living. Entrants are divided into five categories: medicine, nutrition, sanitation, energy, and living standards. The Office noted that in this latest round, for which the application process concluded on December 4, 2015, four of the five categories did not produce honorees. Winners receive accelerated processing of select matters at the USPTO (i.e., a patent application, ex parte reexamination, or an ex parte appeal to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board) in addition to recognition for their work. The latest winners are as follows:
• The U.S. Food & Drug Administration for developing an improved meningitis vaccine production process, which has been used to immunize 235 million people in high-risk African countries. FDA scientists set out to create a better meningitis vaccine production method for the Meningitis Vaccine Program (MVP), which was formed by the health non-profit PATH, the Gates Foundation, and the World Health Organization to combat Meningitis A. The new technology developed by the FDA raised vaccine production yield from 20% to 60% and enabled the vaccine to last up to four days without refrigeration, unlike previous vaccines. The FDA has licensed the technology to the MVP.
• Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) for creating a low-cost, accurate malaria detection device, which allows for better diagnosis and treatment of malaria. CWRU Engineers and doctors designed the Magneto-Optical Detection (MOD) device, which uses lasers and magnets to diagnose malaria by detecting iron-laden byproducts of the parasite in the blood. The device can be ten times cheaper per test than the current standard. CWRU received an honorable mention in the 2014 Patents for Humanity program.
• GestVision for developing a quick, simple diagnostic test for preeclampsia, a pregnancy complication that is the leading cause of prenatal death for mothers and babies worldwide, mostly in low and middle income countries. GestVision's test detects misfolded proteins in urine associated with PE, which may be shown by a colored dot similar to a pregnancy test. Following initial research at Yale University, GestVision was created to further develop the technology.
• The Global Good Fund at Intellectual Ventures for creating a passive cooler that can keep vaccines cold over thirty days, and for donating dozens of units to the fight against Ebola and other relief efforts. Researchers at Global Good designed the Arktek cooler to keep vaccines cold for over a month with no power required -- the device uses high-efficiency insulation materials to prevent heat transfer. The technology has been licensed to a leading refrigeration manufacturer in order to scale production of the device at an affordable price.
This year, the Office also awarded two honorable mentions:
• Sanofi for researching new malaria drug candidates with shorter, simpler treatment regimens that can potentially counter the growing trend of drug resistance.
• Alere Inc. for developing diagnostic assays for rapid and early HIV diagnosis at the point of care in low-resource settings.
Additional information regarding the latest winners of the Patents for Humanity program can be found here, and information regarding the Patents for Humanity program can be found here.
