Matritech Receives Notices of Allowance for Patent Applications Covering NMP22 Test Kit for Bladder Cancer and NuMA Test Kit for Colon Cancer
When Issued, Patents Will Extend Exclusivitiy at Least Eight Years to 2014
NEWTON, Mass., May 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Matritech, Inc. (Nasdaq:NMPS) announced today that the company received Notices of Allowance from the United States Patent and Trademark Office for two of its patent applications covering nuclear mitotic apparatus protein (NuMA). NuMA is a structural component of the cell nucleus which is released by dying cells and expressed in relatively large amounts by cancerous cells. Matritech presently sells two cancer diagnostic tests in
which the NuMA complex is the tumor marker: the urine-based NMP22(R) Test Kit for bladder cancer approved for sale in the United States by the FDA; and the blood-based NuMA(TM) Test Kit for Colon Cancer which is available overseas and is undergoing clinical trials in the United States in preparation for submission to the Food and Drug Administration.
``The significance of these allowances is that Matritech will have exclusive rights in this clinically useful Nuclear Matrix Protein (NMP) for 17 years from the date of the patent grants at least until the year 2014,'' said Stephen D. Chubb, Matritech, Inc.'s Chief Executive Officer.
The NMP22 Test Kit for Bladder Cancer and the NuMA Test Kit for colon Cancer are already protected by claims contained in three NMP patents owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and licensed exclusively to Matritech. Corresponding patent applications for the NuMA protein are pending outside the Untied States.
The Company is using nuclear matrix protein (NMP) technology discovered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and exclusively licensed to Matritech -- to develop serum- and cell-based NMP diagnostics. The NMP22 Test Kit using proprietary nuclear matrix protein (NMP) technology is the Company's first commercial product. The Company believes that the test is the only quantitative, non-invasive urine test for bladder cancer that can identify patients at risk for recurrence with a high degree of accuracy.
There are an estimated two million people who suffer from bladder cancer worldwide. Each year in the Unites States alone nearly 50,000 people are diagnosed with the disease.
In late March 1997, Matritech announced that it completed its performance qualifications for the first production lots of its NMP blood-based colon cancer detection assay to be supplied to 13 cancer sites for use in demonstrating its clinical performance. The purpose of the evaluations by the leading cancer centers, located throughout the world, is to independently confirm the clinical utility of the new test.
Colorectal cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States killing more than 55,000 people each year. The Company estimates that the prevalence of colon cancer outside the United States exceeds 1.5 million people.
In addition to the bladder and colorectal cancer products now on the market, Matritech's pipeline also includes products for detecting lung, prostate, cervical, and breast cancers -- all of which are based on discoveries that the protein composition of the Nuclear Matrix differs between cancer and normal cells.
SOURCE: Matritech, Inc. |
