>>SAN DIEGO, Feb. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Ceregene, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on gene therapies for neurodegenerative disorders, today announced the issuance of a broad patent (U.S. Patent No. 6,683,058) relating to gene therapy methods that could be potentially applied to the treatment of multiple neurodegenerative conditions including Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.
Ceregene is the exclusive worldwide licensee of the patent, which was issued to the Regents of the University of California from work at its San Diego campus (UCSD).
The patent covers the delivery of therapeutic neurotrophic (neural growth) factors to the brain using both viral and non-viral gene delivery methods. Neurotrophic factors play a key role in growth and proper function of adult nerve cells and have been widely studied for their potential to treat a number of neurodegenerative diseases. Ceregene is currently developing proprietary technologies for the delivery of genes encoding neurotrophic factors to the specific regions in the brain where they could potentially block the degeneration of critical populations of nerve cells. The company has exclusive rights to related technology that is being used in an ongoing Phase I clinical study at the UCSD, delivering nerve growth factor (NGF) to Alzheimer's disease patients by gene therapy. All patients have completed treatment, and patients are now being monitored for improvement in their disease using cognitive function and brain imaging. Preliminary results from this trial indicate that the gene therapy treatment is well tolerated and biologically active and an abstract has been submitted to this year's American Academy of Neurology Meeting describing the clinical results of this trial.
"This is an important patent to Ceregene and is very relevant to all of our product development programs including our lead effort in Alzheimer's disease," stated Jeffrey M. Ostrove, Ph.D., president and chief operating officer of Ceregene. "We plan to use the technology described in this patent in a Phase I/II clinical trial of Alzheimer's disease gene therapy (CERE-110) expected to begin later this year, and also expect to initiate clinical trials in the coming year for both Parkinson's disease (CERE-120) and Lou Gehrig's disease (CERE-130)."
About Ceregene
Ceregene, Inc. is a San Diego-based biotechnology company focused on the development and commercialization of gene therapies for neurological disorders including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Ceregene was launched in January 2001 and is a majority- owned subsidiary of Cell Genesys, Inc. (Nasdaq: CEGE - News), which is headquartered in South San Francisco, CA.<<
snip
patft.uspto.gov
Cheers, Tuck |
