Subject: Cetus Patents Upheld in Fight With Du Pont 
Date: Published: 2/28/91 (35 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Biotechnology:
    Cetus Patents
    Upheld in Fight
    With Du Pont
    ----
    By Marilyn Chase
    Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

    SAN FRANCISCO -- Cetus Corp. won a victory against Du Pont
 Co. yesterday when a federal court jury upheld two Cetus
 patents covering a process used to amplify and analyze the
 genetic code.
    The decision, if upheld, ends more than two years of
 David-and-Goliath struggle in favor of the smaller
 biotechnology concern, while holding off a giant contender
 for the potential profits from the many applications for the
 polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, process.
    PCR currently is used in a widening array of applications
 from disease diagnostic tests to forensic analyses of
 criminal suspects.  Scientists employ PCR to probe genes of
 organisms as diverse as ancient wooly mammoths and the AIDS
 virus.
    "PCR has always belonged to Cetus.  It was invented here
 and patented here," said Ronald Cape, Cetus's chairman.  Cetus
 has predicted that PCR-based diagnostic tests for disease
 could become a $1 billion business by the end of this decade.

[This article is made available here by Dow Jones Co. for the 
personal and non-commercial use of callers to this bbs, in the 
hope that it will be of some help to those who are suffering 
from the disease and others who are seeking to help them.]