Marina Biotech has applied for a patent on the methods of using carbetocin to treat symptoms of autism. Carbetocin is an artificial form of oxytocin.

Eric Hollander of the Seaver Institute, the researcher who, with Jennifer Bartz, first showed oxytocin's efficacy in reducing the symptoms of autism, also had applied for a patent on such.

He was working with Nastech, a now-defunct biotech company that had developed new ways of delivering drugs via inhalant. Hollander originally administered oxytocin to adults with ASD intravenously.

Nastech also had applied for a patent on using carbetocin to treat symptoms of autism. In my 2005 blog post on this, I mistakenly said it had received the patent. I should have said its patent application was published. That application is no longer available on the USPTO site.

I will leave it to patent nerds to figure out if there's any connection between Marina Biotech and Nastech, and where Hollander's application stands -- and fits in. Here's info on the Marina patent on FreshPatents.