Patent for orally administrable pharmaceutical may aid treatment of overdose patients

Global nanotechnology company pSivida Limited, is pleased to announce that its UK operating subsidiary pSiMedica Limited has been granted a new Australian patent for BioSiliconTM.

Australian Patent Number 769952 provides protection for an orally administrable pharmaceutical product comprising an information carrier having a form and composition such that information is recorded by the carrier, wherein the information carrier comprises a material that is resistant to the gastric environment thereby protecting this information.

One potential application of the carrier is in the treatment of overdose patients who have consumed large quantities of a pharmaceutical product. It is essential for doctors treating such a patient to be able to identify the drug as soon as possible so that remedial action can be taken. Information about the drug, the dosage of the drug, batch number, and its expiry date may be of value. Once retrieved from the patient the information present on the carrier may be read using a microscope. The information carrier would comprise a semiconductor chip or a silicon chip. The information would be recorded by engraving the chip via photolithography or electron beam lithography. Using a semi conductor we are able to engrave large quantities of information on very small samples of less than 10 microns.

pSivida Managing Director Gavin Rezos said, “This patent demonstrates another exciting potential application for BioSiliconTM within the field of healthcare. BioSiliconTM is an ideal biomaterial for such an application. Silicon has been shown to have high levels of resistance to gastric corrosion, we are able to impart large quantities of information on an extremely small surface utilizing proven techniques used in electronics and we are also able to control the rate of biodegration of the information carrier for a suitable period after the drug has been administered.” pSiMedica has also recently been granted a further patent in New Zealand for the use of BioSiliconTM as a vehicle for transferring material into a cell providing additional protection in drug delivery applications.

The pSiMedica Intellectual Property portfolio now consists of 21 patent families, 16 granted patents and over 85 patent applications. pSiMedica owns all of the Intellectual Property (royalty free) for the application of BioSiliconTM. Products protected by patents and patent applications owned by pSiMedica include materials comprising bioactive, resorbable and biocompatible silicon that are of value in the fabrication of new generations of intelligent drug delivery devices, orthopaedic implants and intelligent diagnostic tools.