USPTO issues patent for Taro Pharmaceutical Industries' T2007

Apr 6 2010

Taro Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. ("Taro," the "Company," Pink Sheets: TAROF) announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued United States Patent No. 7,683,071 covering T2007. The patent, entitled "Composition and method for improved bioavailability and enhanced brain delivery of 5,5-diphenyl barbituric acid," is for one of a class of non-sedating barbiturate compounds currently in development by the Company.

“Composition and method for improved bioavailability and enhanced brain delivery of 5,5-diphenyl barbituric acid”

In December 2009 the Company announced that it had begun Phase I clinical trials in Canada with T2007. T2007 is the sodium salt of diphenyl barbituric acid (DPB). Plans for T2007 are currently directed at its use as an antiepileptic agent. In animal models, DPB has efficacy comparable to phenobarbital, a long-established clinical treatment for epilepsy. Phenobarbital remains the most commonly prescribed antiepileptic drug throughout the world, although its use has always been limited by its sedating side effects and has been largely replaced by newer agents in Europe and North America.