Subject: Suit by French Institute On AIDS Study Dismissed
Date: Published: 7/10/86 44 lines
Source:  Wall Street Journal.  Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

   Suit by French Institute
   On AIDS Study Dismissed

   The U. S. Court of Claims in Washington dismissed a lawsuit
by France's Pasteur Institute against the National Institutes
of Health over AIDS research and royalties.
   The Pasteur Institute, a nonprofit, Paris-based research
center, charged last December that Robert C. Gallo and
co-workers at the National Cancer Institute of the NIH based
an American patent covering the AIDS blood-test kit on prior
French research and virus samples, contrary to a written
promise not to use them for commercial purposes.
   In dismissing the suit, Judge James Merow ruled that the
U. S. scientists lacked the authority to sign the agreement.
The NIH had argued that such promises should be signed by
higher departmental officials.
   The lawsuit sought more than $1 million in damages, a
declaration of prior inventorship and a share of royalties.
   An attorney for the Pasteur Institute called the ruling a
"narrow and technical decision which doesn't touch the merits
of the issue."  He said he plans to press the complaint,
either by appeal or by "going back to the Department of
Health and Human Services with a fuller presentation of the
facts."
   In Bethesda, Md., an NIH associate of Dr. Gallo said:  
"We're steering clear of comments on legal matters.  Our focus
is on science."
   Two Pasteur Institute scientists first identified the
acquired immune deficiency syndrome virus in 1983 and applied
for a patent on their work.  Dr. Gallo's team followed with
more heavily documented studies and a patent application in
1984.  The Americans won a patent that now nets the U. S. 
treasury 5% royalties on some $40 million in annual test-kit
sales.

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