Avicena files composition of matter patent application for treatment of Lou Gehrig's disease

Apr 24 2007

Avicena Group has announced that it has filed a composition of matter patent application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease), a severe neurodegenerative disease.

This composition of matter patent broadly covers pharmaceutical formulations based on creatine derivatives alone or in combination with an anti-inflammatory compound for the treatment of ALS. The Company believes that this patent will provide additional IP protection for its current and future generation drug candidates formulated to treat ALS which extends beyond the existing use patents previously issued to Avicena with claims in neurology (US Patents 6,196,115 B1 and 6,706,764 B2). This application will further extend Avicena's intellectual property portfolio for ALS-02, a drug candidate that has previously been granted orphan drug designation by the US FDA.

Belinda Tsao-Nivaggioli, Ph.D., CEO of Avicena, stated, "This patent application is another key intellectual property milestone that builds shareholder value and will help us further protect the Company's cellular energy franchise and the drug candidates we develop for ALS. ALS remains a leading indication for our technology, and this additional patent application will support our commercialization work in this important therapeutic area."

ALS is a neurodegenerative disease that attacks the motor neurons of the brain and spinal cord that are responsible for voluntary muscle movement. As these motor neurons degenerate, their ability to send impulses to the muscle fibers is compromised. The progressive degeneration of motor neurons eventually leads to neuron death resulting in the brain's inability to initiate or control muscle movement. Once a patient's muscles no longer receive the messages that they require to function, muscles begin to atrophy. With an incidence rate of approximately 1 in 10,000, ALS affects roughly 30,000 Americans at any given time. Each year, approximately 5,600 new cases of ALS are diagnosed. The two types of ALS are "sporadic ALS," which accounts for approximately 85% - 90% of all cases; and "familial ALS," which accounts for the remaining 10% - 15% of patents.