ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 7 -- United States Patent no. 12,673,954, issued on July 7, was assigned to Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (Princeton, N.J.).

"Benzofuran compounds as sting agonists" was invented by Brian E. Fink (Yardley, Pa.), Emily Charlotte Cherney (Newtown, Pa.), Liping Zhang (East Windsor, N.J.), Julian C. Lo (Burlingame, Calif.), Gretchen M. Schroeder (Bayou Vista, Texas), Tram N. Huynh (Frankford, Del.), Donna D. Wei (Belle Mead, N.J.), Vijay T. Ahuja (Princeton, N.J.) and Claude A. Quesnelle (Denver).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present invention is directed to compounds of formula (I) and (II), wherein all substituents are defined herein, as well as pharmaceutically acceptable ...