Geron Corp.
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| Geron Corporation | |
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| Type of Company | Public NASDAQ: GERN |
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| Founded | 1990 |
| Headquarters | Menlo Park, CA |
| Key people | Dr. Thomas B. Okarma: President and CEO; David L. Greenwood: CFO |
| Industry | Biotechnology |
| Products | Cancer drugs (currently in human trials); Stem cell therapies for spinal cord injuries (human trials planned for early 2007) |
| Revenue |  $6.158 Million USD (2005) |
| Net income |  -$33.528 Million USD (2005) |
| Employees | 90 |
| Website | www.geron.com |
Geron Corporation is a biotechnology company founded by Dr. Michael West based in Menlo Park, California. The company was incorporated in 1990 and began doing business in 1992. Geron Corporation focuses on creating drugs based on telomere and stem cell research.
Geron is traded on the NASDAQ under the symbol GERN. The current chief executive officer is Dr. Thomas B. Okarma, M.D., Ph.D. It was included in the SCCC Index, a 15 stock index of companies important "to the field of stem cell, cloning, and cell transplantation research and medicine" when that index was created in 2003 and as of July 2006 comprises 18.42% of the index.
The company specializes in developing and commercialization of products in three specific areas: 1) therapeutic products for cancer that target telomerase; 2) pharmaceuticals that activate telomerase in tissues impacted by cell aging, injury or degenerative diseases; and 3) cell-based therapies derived from human embryonic stem cells for treatment of various chronic diseases.
Currently, Geron Corporation has two anti-cancer products in clinical trials. The first, called GRN163L, is a drug that targets telomerase and has been shown to be effective in treating various cancers in animals. It is beginning human trials and testing in patients with lymphocytic leukemia. Also in trials at Duke University is GRNVAC1, a telomerase vaccine being used on patients with prostate cancer. With the vaccine, Geron plans to inject telomerase into the patient with metastatic prostate cancer to induce the body to produce a more aggressive immune response to the cancer. This vaccine has also produced significant initial results. Geron's progress with these telomerase drugs has been significant enough to have elicited a significant monetary investment in 2005 from Merck, one of the largest of the world's drug companies.
Geron plans to begin testing of GRNOPC1 in 2007. GRNOPC1 is an embryonic stem cell based drug that is designed to treat spinal cord injuries. Animal tests have shown significant restoration of mobility in animals with spinal injuries that were treated with this drug. After initiating trials for human subjects with spinal cord injuries, Geron hopes to be able to test GRNIC1, an embryonic stem cell treatment for diabetes. In tests with diabetic mice, 80% of the mice given GRNIC1 were still alive in 50 days while the entire control group, which was given no treatment, perished. Geron is also developing an embryonic stem cell treatment for heart disease, which they haved named GRNCM1.
Beyond stem cells, Geron is in the early stages of developing a telomerase based treatment for HIV called TAT0002.
Since it was organized in 1990 Geron has been granted over 260 patents.
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[edit] Controversy over GERON Corporation's rights to stem cell technology
GERON Corporation used to have exclusive rights, for which they had to pay, to the patents owned by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF). WARF does not charge academics to study human stem cells but does charge commercial users. In 2001 WARF came under public pressure to widen access to human stem-cell technology. WARF sued GERON Corp. to recover some of the previously sold rights. The two sides agreed that GERON Corp. would keep the rights to only three cell types.[1]
The whole area of patents for human stem cell work is now in doubt as a legal challenge is being mounted to overturn these patents by The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights and the non-profit patent-watchdog Public Patent Foundation.[2] They contend that 2 of the patents granted to WARF are invalid because they cover a technique published in 1992 for which a patent had already been granted to an Australian researcher. Another part of the challenge comes from the molecular biologist Jeanne Loring who states that University of Wisconsin stem cell pioneer James Thomson's techniques (currently patents held by WARF) are rendered obvious by a 1990 paper and 2 textbooks. The outcome of this legal challenge is particularly relevant to the GERON Corporation as it can only licence patents that are upheld.[3]
[edit] Controversy over GERON Corp's rights to "cloning" technology
There is also uncertainty over GERON Corp.'s rights to nuclear transfer technology. A dispute between ACT and GERON has been largely resolved as of September 6, 2006 when lawsuits challenging the validity of Geron's cloning technology were dismissed with prejudice by the appeals courts [1] There is a more fundamental objection to the rights as Ian Wilmut was identified on the original patent.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.genetics-and-society.org/newsdisp.asp?id=1033
- ^ http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2006/718/2
- ^ http://www.genetics-and-society.org/newsdisp.asp?id=1039
[edit] External links
- Corporate web site
- SCCC Index of stem cell, cloning, and cell therapy stocks. Geron is a component of the SCCC Index.
