Broad European Patent Issued for Introgen's Nanoparticle Drug Delivery System; Claims Cover Forty Tumor Suppressors
Tuesday November 21, 1:30 pm ET
AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- A patent licensed exclusively to Introgen Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: INGN - News) has been granted by the European Patent Office ("EPO"). The patent protects Introgen's non-viral delivery platform for delivering one or more of almost 40 tumor suppressor genes for inducing apoptosis, or programmed cell death, in cancer cells.
The patent, EP1180016B1 is titled Methods and Compositions for Non-Viral Gene Therapy for the Treatment of Hyperproliferative Diseases. This patent is one of a family of patents issued to The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and licensed to Introgen Therapeutics, Inc.
Dr. David L. Parker, Introgen's senior vice president of Intellectual Property said, "This patent is of particular importance in that it provides protection for the systemic delivery of tumor suppressor genes such as p53, mda-7 and numerous others, by using synthetic nanoparticles.
This approach has shown promise, for example, in our INGN 401 program, in which the FUS-1 tumor suppressor gene is administered intravenously to patients with metastatic lung cancers. Introgen's nanoparticle programs are further enhanced by its recently acquired nanoplex technologies which enable the systemic delivery of a variety of proteins, peptides and polypeptides."
Introgen's programs in this area are in various stages of development. INGN 401 (nanoparticle-FUS-1) is in Phase 1 studies. Nanoparticle-mda7 (INGN 403) has demonstrated in preclinical studies that the therapy results in potent anti-cancer effects and systemic tumor growth inhibition in an animal model of metastatic lung cancer.
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The news apparently helped the stock to come back into the plus territory after its morning's dip. Volume has remained low & the short position although down 3% in the last month, still is around 15.6% of the float or more than 47x its daily volume.<g>
Bernard |
