NanoViricides, Inc. (OTC BB: NNVC) (the "Company") announced today that a fundamental patent, on which the nanoviricides® technology is based, is due to be issued in the USA on May 8, 2012. The issuance notification was received from the US Patents and Trademarks Office last week.
The US Patent (No. 8,173,764) is granted for "Solubilization and Targeted Delivery of Drugs with Self-Assembling Amphiphilic Polymers." It will be issued on May 8, 2012. The patent term is expected to last through October 1, 2026, including an anticipated extension, with the possibility of further extensions in compensation for time spent in clinical trials.
The US Patent has been allowed with a very broad range of claims to a large number of families of chemical structure compositions, pharmaceutical compositions, methods of making the same, and uses of the same. The disclosed structures enable self-assembling, biomimetic nanomedicines. NanoViricides, Inc. holds exclusive, perpetual, worldwide licenses to these technologies for a broad range of antiviral applications and diseases.
Based on international PCT application number WO 2007/1084126, which was filed in 2006, corresponding patents have also been issued in New Zealand and South Africa, and as a regional (OAPI) patent valid in sixteen other African states. Additional issuances are expected in Europe, and in several other countries around the world.
“It is rewarding to see that the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recognized the novelty and the broad utility of the entire ‘pi-polymer’ class of materials as defined by the inventors, and granted a patent with sufficient scope to protect the whole of the invention, for all foreseeable pharmaceutical applications, including the nanoviricides® anti-viral substances,” said Dr. James Demers, PhD, JD, now with Gotham Patent Services LLC, who represents the inventors before the USPTO and directs the international patenting effort. He further added, “The application was drafted so as to describe and claim Dr. Diwan's invention, on which the nanoviricides® technology is based, as broadly as possible, and we anticipate that other countries around the world will also grant claims similar to those allowed by the USPTO.”
“We are very pleased with the validation of the novelty of our technologies,” said Dr. Diwan, President and Chairman of NanoViricides, Inc., adding, “This patent establishes a fundamentally new direction in developing biomimetic approaches. It creates a germane field within polymeric micelle technologies, introducing structures that we call pi-polymers. These are the structures that enable the creation of a nanoviricide® with its unique biomimetic features. These biomimetic features allow us to make the nanoviricide look like a host-cell membrane to the virus, with the goal of deceiving the virus to land on it and thereupon destroy itself.”
“Issuance of this patent with its broad set of claims validates the strong leadership position we have in biomimetic technologies,” said Dr. Jayant Tatake, Vice-President of R&D of the Company.
Commenting on the patent award, Dr. Eugene Seymour, MD, MPH, Chief Executive Officer of the Company, stated, “We always knew that this is a ground-breaking technology. We believe, based on the tremendous effectiveness that our nanoviricides drugs have shown against a large number of viral diseases in several very stringent animal models, that this technology spells a fundamental change in how medicines will be developed in the future. For example, our anti-influenza clinical candidate, Flucide™, was developed using the nanoviricide® technology, and has exhibited surprisingly high levels of effectiveness in animal studies, far surpassing the existing drugs. Our expectation that FluCide will work well in humans is based upon the results of these animal studies that indicate (1) extremely high treatment effectiveness in inhibiting the cycle of infection, virus expansion and spread of infection and, (2) the significantly long lasting effects of the drug treatment even after the drug is discontinued.”
The patents are being issued to the inventors Anil R. Diwan, PhD, Jayant G. Tatake, PhD, and Ann L. Onton, all of who are among the founders of NanoViricides, Inc. The patents have been assigned to AllExcel, Inc., the Company at which the ground-breaking work was performed. AllExcel, Inc. has contractually transferred this intellectual property to TheraCour Pharma, Inc.
NanoViricides, Inc. holds exclusive worldwide licenses to these technologies for a broad range of antiviral applications and diseases that include All Influenzas including Asian Bird Flu Virus, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV/AIDS), Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV), Dengue viruses, Rabies virus, Ebola/Marburg viruses, Japanese Encephalitis virus, as well as viruses causing viral Conjunctivitis (a disease of the eye) and ocular herpes.
About NanoViricides:
NanoViricides, Inc. (www.nanoviricides.com) is a development stage company that is creating special purpose nanomaterials for viral therapy. The Company's novel nanoviricide® class of drug candidates are designed to specifically attack enveloped virus particles and to dismantle them. The Company is developing drugs against a number of viral diseases including H1N1 swine flu, H5N1 bird flu, seasonal Influenza, HIV, oral and genital Herpes, viral diseases of the eye including EKC and herpes keratitis, Hepatitis C, Rabies, Dengue fever, and Ebola virus, among others.
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