Expression of Concern: STAT6 knockdown using multiple siRNA sequences inhibits proliferation and induces apoptosis of human colorectal and breast cancer cell lines

Abstract

After this article [1] was published, questions were raised as to the compliance of this article with PLOS’ Materials Sharing and Competing Interests policies, about the ownership and scope of patents that apply to the siRNAs used in the article, and about aspects of the statistical analyses, results, and conclusions. • The article refers to the STAT6 siRNA sequences as “proprietary” as they are covered by pat ents owned by SIRNA Ltd., a daughter company of Celixir PLC. The patents cover Europe, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, US, South Africa, and cover the sequences for any use including development and/or sale of research reagents (EP1725658, AU2005217200, CA2599524, NZ549915, US7,566,700 and ZA2006/07471 which are all national/regional phases of the Walker and Hopkin patent in ref. 22). The authors provided documentation to support these statements regarding ownership of the relevant patents. • The sequences of the siRNAs are provided in the Materials and Methods section of [1]. The authors have clarified that they will grant interested researchers permissions to use the siR NAs and/or siRNA sequences for non-commercial purposes such as academic research. Researchers with commercial affiliations may request collaboration for use of the siRNAs and/or siRNA sequences under commercial license agreements. Patent rights will be asserted in cases where the sequences or reagents based on the sequences are used for commercial activities, such as selling reagents.