NEW NUCANT PATENTS

RNS Number : 6443J

Immupharma PLC

16 June 2014

 



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE : RNS

16 JUNE  2014

NEW NUCANT PATENTS

- New Optically Pure Compounds for Improved Therapeutic Efficiency -

ImmuPharma PLC (LSE:IMM), ("ImmuPharma" or the "Company"), the specialist drug discovery and development company, is delighted to announce that the US Patent and Trademark Office has granted a notice of allowance for an "optically pure" version of ImmuPharma's Nucant family. A similar grant has been obtained from the EU, Japanese and Australian patent offices. 

The patent was developed by ImmuPharma in collaboration with the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), the largest fundamental research institution in Europe with which ImmuPharma has its key research collaboration.  This composition of matter patent importantly provides:

·     Longer exclusivity

·     Additional and reinforced protection of ImmuPharma's Nucant programme

·     A multitude of further indications in addition to cancer

This new patent family covers millions of peptide constructs (i.e. preventing other companies from working in the area) and also expands the potential uses to include angiogenesis related conditions such as age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and wound healing as well as cancer selective targeting systems (Nucants target selectively the cancer cells through binding to nucleolin, a protein over expressed in cells that proliferate quickly).

The patent exclusive rights belong to ELRO Pharma, one of ImmuPharma's wholly owned subsidiaries.  ELRO Pharma is focusing on pioneering research related to this Nucant family of molecules.

Dr Robert Zimmer, ImmuPharma's President and Chief Scientific Officer and one of the inventors of the patent commented: "We are pleased to see our research efforts rewarded and to add to our extensive patent portfolio.  It is important for us to keep ahead of innovation in the industry and this broadens the company's pipeline and takes us in new exciting areas of unmet medical need".

For further information please contact:

ImmuPharma plc	+ 44 (0) 20 7152 4080
Dimitri Dimitriou, Chief Executive Officer
Dr Robert Zimmer, President and Chief Scientific Officer
Richard Warr, Chairman
Lisa Baderoon, Head of Investor Relations	+ 44 (0) 7721 413496
Panmure, Gordon & Co., NOMAD & Broker	[phone]
Hugh Morgan Fred Walsh

 

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