OpGen’s Ares Genetics maintains key patents under opposition

OpGen and OpGen subsidiary announced that one of its key patents under opposition has been successfully maintained. The patent with the title GENETIC RESISTANCE PREDICTION AGAINST ANTIMICROBIAL DRUGS IN MICROORGANISM USING STRUCTURAL CHANGES IN THE GENOME was granted in Europe on January 6, 2021 and in China on January 10, 2023. In September 2021, an opposition was filed by a Swedish opponent against the patent grant by the European Patent Office. In a hearing on Thursday, June 22, 2023, the opposition division of the European Patent Office ruled in favor of maintaining the patent as granted with a minor amendment to one of the claims. The patent as maintained broadly covers the prediction of AMR in pathogens based on any genetic determinants involving two or more nucleotides. The patent is an important component of the comprehensive intellectual property portfolio protecting Ares Genetics’ unique database ARESdb and machine learning based approaches for predicting phenotypic antibiotic susceptibility and resistance directly from genomic data, an approach also referred to as “genomic AST.” Under the patent, both the computational identification of genetic determinants of AMR and genomic AST can be carried out, in order to diagnose AMR infections in patient samples.