SAN DIEGO--(BW HealthWire)--Jan. 24, 2002--Anadys Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today the issuance of two key patents for screening small molecules against RNA for drug discovery. The two patents are: US Patent 6,331,392 ``Screen Employing Fluorescence Anisotropy To Identify Compounds With Affinity For Nucleic Acids'' and US Patent 6,337,183 ``Screen For Compounds With Affinity For Nucleic Acids''. In general, the patents cover screening methodologies that identify small molecules binding to RNA as revealed by changes in RNA conformation. Both patents apply to Anadys' SCAN(TM) (Screen for Compounds with Affinity for Nucleic Acids) technology that enables screening small molecules against RNA targets.
``The area of RNA biology is beginning to attract considerable attention as a drug target,'' said Kleanthis G. Xanthopoulos, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Anadys. ``One of the key challenges has always been finding a way to screen therapeutically relevant RNA fragments for small molecules that have the ability to attenuate their function. SCAN(TM) provides a powerful technology to screen small molecules against RNA.''
``These patents highlight Anadys' commitment to aggressively protect its key technologies and other intellectual property,'' said Elizabeth E. Reed, Esq., Director of Legal Affairs for Anadys. ``They also serve to enhance and further validate Anadys' leadership position in the field of Riboproteomics(TM), the systematic study of RNA and RNA-protein interactions as targets for developing small molecule drugs.'' These patents bring to 59 the total number of issued patents held by or assigned to Anadys with more than 80 additional patents pending worldwide.
About Anadys Pharmaceuticals
Anadys Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (``Anadys'' or the ``Company'') is a new generation drug discovery company committed to applying an integrated approach that combines biology and chemistry to develop new small molecule therapeutics. The Company's initial therapeutic focus is in anti-infectives. Anadys has developed and implemented proprietary technologies (GATE(TM)) to identify novel antibacterial and antifungal targets. The Company augments this set of targets with additional antibacterial and antiviral targets using its dominant expertise in Riboproteomics(TM), a phrase coined by the Company to describe the systematic study of RNA-related targets. RNA and RNA-protein complexes have been validated as targets for the treatment of infectious diseases with approved drugs such as neomycin, Zyvox®, and Zithromax®. The Company can screen targets for small molecule effectors using a proprietary ultra high-throughput affinity-based method for protein targets (ATLAS(TM)) and a proprietary method for RNA targets (SCAN(TM)). Compounds identified in screening are then advanced to drug development candidates using the Company's proprietary cheminformatics tools (including PROTOS(TM)) combined with a world-class high-output medicinal chemistry platform. Anadys intends to harness this integrated suite of technologies to propel a strong and continual pipeline of drug candidates into the clinic.
For more information, visit www.anadyspharma.com |
