Patenting Sirtuin drugs?

Brandon Keim of Wired Science wonders about the intellectual property status of resveratrol concentrate research.

Asked about Sirtris’...Westphal said the company would eventually apply for a patent on “any small molecule or any drug that activates SIRT1 to treat any disease of aging. It’s an extremely broad mechanism that we believe would cover any approach.”

I don’t imagine that Sirtris’ approach is different from any other company working on sirtuins. After all, why wouldn’t a company claim everything it could? I called Tony Palmieri, a University of Florida intellectual property expert and ex-chair of the American Academy of Pharmaceutical Research and Science. Would a company really be able to claim ownership to any molecular activation of an enzyme?

“There ain’t no way in hell they’re going to get that,” Palmieri said.