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RXi Pharmaceuticals Strengthens Intellectual Property Portfolio

22-Sep-2014 | Source : | Visits : 6020
MARLBOROUGH, Mass., - RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation announced in a press release that it has been granted a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on its unique delivery system for delivering its "original" RNAi compounds (rxRNAori®) to phagocytic cells for the treatment of diseases with an inflammatory component. 

Potential diseases include, but are not limited to, macular degeneration, rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease. The patent covers the use of rxRNAori (RNAi compounds having a 25 to 30 base pair duplex) in a complex containing a phagocytic cell-targeting moiety. U.S. Patent Number 8,815,818, will expire in 2029. The granting of this patent further broadens the breadth of RXi's RNAi delivery platform allowing for the targeted delivery of RNAi therapeutics to specific cells.

In addition, RXi announced that it has been granted a patent by the European Patent Office for a siRNA sequence targeting ICAM-1 for treatment of several diseases, such as allergic conjunctivitis, angiogenesis, corneal/limbic injury, retinitis, and uveitis. European Patent Number EP 2 251 434, will expire in 2024. Furthermore, RXi received a notice of allowance from the Japanese Patent Office for the delivery of double stranded siRNAs (21 to 23 nucleotides in length) across the blood-retina barrier. These two patents, acquired from OPKO Health, Inc., add to RXi's growing list of potential RNAi therapeutic and delivery modalities.

"These issued patents and notice of allowance greatly enhance the value proposition of RXi Pharmaceuticals," said Dr. Geert Cauwenbergh, President and CEO of RXi Pharmaceuticals. He added that, "Not only do these patents deepen our ability to broadly protect our proprietary and novel technology platform, it also reinforces the potential for future commercial and business development opportunities."

RXi's intellectual property estate includes patents and patent applications related to chemistries, sequences, configurations, compounds, delivery technologies, and therapeutic targets.  We believe these patents and patent applications define broad coverage for the development and commercialization of advanced RNAi therapeutics.  In particular, they relate to novel and proprietary structural and chemical modifications patterns, used to introduce "drug-like" properties to rxRNA® compounds.  Fundamental IP related to development of RXi's rxRNA compounds covers distinct (from conventional siRNAs) structures with duplex length shorter than 15 bases, or longer than 25 bases in the context of advanced and diverse chemical modifications patterns. In 2013, RXi acquired the OPKO RNAi intellectual property estate.  The OPKO RNAi estate includes 12 patent families and provides broad patent filings for siRNAs compounds which target genes involved in angiogenesis, cancer, immune disorders and inflammatory diseases. Methods for siRNA delivery across the blood-brain and blood-retina barrier are also covered for therapeutic and diagnostic use. 

RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation is a biotechnology company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing innovative therapies based on its proprietary, self-delivering RNAi (sd-rxRNA®) platform. 
 
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