On October 20, 2025, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) submitted comments to the NIH in response to the Federal Register notice titled, “Prospective Grant of an Exclusive Patent License: Substituted Quinoline Analogs As Aldehyde Dehydrogenase 1A1 Inhibitors” (90 FR 47782) The technology is to be licensed to Stage One Immunotherapeutics, Inc., which the notice states is incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in Pennsylvania.
Dr. Malay Haldar lists on his staff page at the University of Pennsylvania (where he is Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine) that he is “Founder and Chair of Scientific Advisory Board, Stage One Immunotherapeutics”. In a paper on related technology, a conflict of interest disclosure states that:
“Malay Haldar is co-founder of Stage One Immunotherapeutics – a startup biotech developing RALDH inhibitors for cancer immunotherapy. The inhibitors described here are part of a ‘method-of-use’ provisional patent filed jointly by the University of Pennsylvania and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at NIH.”
The paper cites several federal grants, in addition to an NCATS grant, supporting the research. The NIH must consider the investment it has already made in the R&D of this technology and seek terms that reflect that investment by the taxpayers.
KEI’s full comments are available here: KEI-Comments-NIH-License-Stage-One-Immunotherapeutics-20Oct2025