ZymoGenetics Webcast

SEATTLE, May 05, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- ZymoGenetics, Inc. announced today that Douglas E. Williams, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of ZymoGenetics, will present at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Health Care Conference in New York City on Wednesday, May 12, 2010 at 10:40 a.m. Eastern Time.

A live webcast of the presentation can be accessed by going to: www.zymogenetics.com. The webcast will be archived for 30 days.

King Q1 - Thrombin sales continue slide

Thrombin-JMI net sales totaled $37 million during the first quarter of 2010 compared to $47 million in the first quarter of last year. Net sales of Avinza totaled $23 million compared to $39 million in the first quarter of 2009.

Marc Goodman – UBS....And then can you talk about THROMBIN a little bit. It just – our understanding is that pricing had stabilized a little bit and share had stabilized but it just seems like this product just keeps going down, I mean you can give us the flavor of how should we think about it. Thanks.

Joe Squicciarino.......THROMBIN, yes so yes we had seen price settle down in the marketplace. The comparison that we’re now making now of course is first quarter of this year versus the first quarter of last year, where price is still a factor. The decline versus last year’s first quarter, once again is split evenly between price and volume, but fortunately we’ve seen price stabilize and hopefully it’ll stay that way.

Source:Seekingalpha

HemCon to ask court to reverse $29.4M patent award

An Oregon company plans to challenge a $29.4 million jury award to a Massachusetts company for patent infringement over a product derived from shrimp shells or algae that can be used to control bleeding. HemCon Medical Technologies Inc. of Portland says it makes a material called chitosan from shrimp shells while Marine Polymer Technologies in Danvers, Mass., makes it from algae. The chitosan is used in bandages to help control bleeding and infection from trauma or surgery and to treat battlefield wounds for the military. Last week, a U.S. District Court jury in Concord, N.H., ruled in favor of Marine Polymer in a patent infringement lawsuit it filed against Hemcon four years ago. Sergio Finkielsztein, president and CEO of Marine Polymer, praised the verdict and said the company will seek a permanent injunction against HemCon. "Our company was built on innovation, and new technologies we have developed since the early 90s and continue to develop to this day," Finkielszstein said. But John Morgan, president and CEO of HemCon, said the verdict would allow the patent to cover shrimp-based chitosan compounds that were publicly disclosed by others well before the Marine Polymer patent application was filed. "We believe the jury's decision is wrong and will ask the court to review and reverse it," Morgan said Wednesday. He also said the U.S. Patent Office granted a HemCon request for re-examination of the patent last November and the agency made an initial determination last month to reject Marine Polymer's claims. Morgan said the Patent Office indicated its willingness to allow the claims of the patent if Marine Polymer would limit them to algae. "There were broad claims in the patent that looked at all forms of materials," Morgan said. "But clearly the process and material employed by Marine Polymer is not what we used."