Trilateral Project 24.1-Biotechnology 186

Generally speaking, it is often possible to raise monoclonal antibodies of other classes or subclasses of immunoglobulin. Similarly, is may be possible to screen for monoclonal antibodies with cross reactivity to other proteins. However, because of the stochastic nature of immunoglobulin rearrangements, there is no reasonable expectation of performing a new fusion and successfully creating a hybridoma that produces a specific monoclonal antibody. Consequently, even if monoclonal antibodies are known, the monoclonal antibody produced by a specifically deposited hybridoma may be nonobvious (cf. Inventive Step). However, the invention may suffer from the loss of rights to a patent if the invention is anticipated by the prior art.