On June 2, 2025, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) offered comments to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) regarding the “Prospective Grant of an Exclusive Patent License: c-Abl Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitory Compound Embodiments and Methods of Making and Using the Same” (90 FR 21054) to Neurala Bio, Inc.
A Google search for the company’s name only returns results about an AI-software company also called Neurala (and the instant Federal Register notice). As highlighted in our comments,
The limited publicly available information about the company severely limits the ability of the public to assess the need for the technology to be licensed on an exclusive basis and to provide informed comment on the company’s ability to bring it to market and ensure access for patients. This is important for all inventions licensed away by the government but particularly for ones such as this that may have favorable qualities and possibly far-reaching, impactful disease applications.
The invention is to be licensed on an exclusive license to Neurala for the treatment of central nervous system disorders, including Epilepsy, Parkinson’s Disease, Lysosomal Storage Disorders (Niemann Pick C and A, Tay-Sachs, Gaucher’s Disease), and Alzheimer’s Disease.
KEI also outlined terms that should be included in this and all exclusive licenses by the NIH, in order to promote access to medicines in the US and globally.
KEI’s full comments are available here: KEI-Comments-NIH-License-Neurala-2June2025