KemPharm, Inc. announced today that it has received a Notice of Issuance from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for its patent application entitled "Non-Standard Amino Acid Conjugates of Amphetamine and Processes for Making and Using the Same", U.S. Patent No. 7,776,917 B2. This patent, combined with KemPharm's recently issued U.S. Patent No. 7,772,222, provides broad protection of the Company's Ligand Activated Therapy (LAT) prodrug technology platform and its application to the treatment of Attention Deficit – Hyperactivity Disorder. The patent covers the Company's lead clinical candidate KP106, a new chemical entity (NCE) composed of the active pharmaceutical compound d-amphetamine and a ligand, which recently successfully completed a Phase 1 clinical trial.
"This second Notice of Issuance within a week of our first patent, reinforces our strong intellectual property position covering KP106 and other potential ADHD drugs derived from our LAT technology," stated Travis Mickle, Ph.D., President & CSO for KemPharm. "Our prodrug platform continues to deliver on all fronts in ADHD as well as other indications, and we are excited to secure the necessary protection that will allow us to fully develop and commercialize our discoveries."
"We have placed patent protection as a strategic priority from the inception of every program, so it is great to see that our efforts are being rewarded," added Sven Guenther, Ph.D., Vice President of Research. "The nature of LAT can lend itself to generating a wide range of prodrugs with diverse pharmacological and physicochemical properties that represent distinct and non-obvious changes from the parent drugs. These unique attributes enable us to pursue and receive protection from the USPTO."