This two-day, interactive, instructor-led workshop was attended by Rimon’s Senior Scientist Allison Brown from April 27-28^th, 2006 at the Toronto offices of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG).  The course was hosted by the Biotechnology Human Resource Council (BHRC), Canada’s leading source for human resource information and biotechnology skills development.  Facilitated by Patent Agents from BLG, the workshop provided attendees with an overview and “how-to” framework for patent protection in Canada and abroad.  For Allison, the course provided a valuable foundation for future involvement in Rimon’s IP strategies. 

Five valuable things that she took away from the course were:

1.  The importance of developing a strong Intellectual Property Strategy within an innovative, start-up company such as Rimon;

2.  An understanding of the criteria that determines what can be patented in the context of the Biotechnology/Life Sciences Industry;

3.  A thorough understanding of the patent granting life cycle and the role of the patent agent or attorney during the various stages of the patenting process;

4.  Effective techniques and available resources for performing prior-art searches;

5. Knowledge of the components, functions, and rules of the Patent Application. This included hands-on experience writing descriptions and claims for sample inventions.

“Over the next decade, medical technology innovations will fundamentally transform health care and delivery systems, providing new solutions with medical devices that will challenge existing paradigms and revolutionize the way treatments are administered.”

The FDA’s announcement in May of this year outlined its intentions to implement ground-breaking alterations in the way the FDA operates and to its place in the development of new treatments. In addition, as demonstrated in the quote above from its official web site, the FDA acknowledges that medical treatment is changing and development of medical devices is leading the way into a new era.

Rimon is part of what the FDA refers to as the “unfolding pattern of ‘smart’ technologies that integrate engineering and biological approaches” that enable “precise clinical interventions”. In the treatment of wound care, Rimon’s primary product, the MI-Sorb™dressing (now in clinical trials), is on the front line of this development. Rather than acting as a passive dressing, providing protection and absorption of exudates, the MI-Sorb™ dressing actively works to counter the damaging effect of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) produced by the body, and by doing so, allows for healing to occur.

As a Class I device, MI-Sorb™ operates with drug-like margins, but benefits from the shorter device timelines. The announcement by the FDA to implement changes intended to facilitates the movement of “smart” devices from research to market could further reduce the timeline for MI-Sorb™ to be introduced to patient care and the costs involved in doing so.