PRINCETON, N.J., July 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- DOR BioPharma, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: DORB) (DOR or the Company), a late-stage biopharmaceutical company, announced today that it has received a European patent which addresses its Lipid Polymer Micelle (LPM(TM)) technology for the improved oral delivery of drugs. The issued European patent, EP 1460992, entitled 'Stabilized Reverse Micelle Compositions and Uses Thereof' covers lipid structures (reverse micelles) that promote the intestinal absorption of peptides and other sensitive drugs that cannot otherwise be given orally.
'The issuance of the European patent for LPM(TM) demonstrates the novelty of this drug delivery system and the preclinical results clearly show that it is a competitive system for oral delivery of drugs, especially those biotechnology products derived from synthetic peptide chemistry or recombinant DNA,' said Christopher J. Schaber, PhD, DOR President and CEO. 'We also believe that the LPM(TM) system will be applicable to a large number of water-soluble drugs including peptides that are poorly permeable, resulting in increased patient compliance and safety.'
About the LPM(TM) Technology
The LPM(TM) technology is a platform technology that uses reverse micelles stabilized by polymers. Reverse micelles are generally described as a lipid system and are similar to water-in-oil emulsions in that the hydrophilic lipid head groups are directed towards the micelle core, with the hydrophobic tails imbedded in the oil phase. This results in a drug- delivery system that is a thermodynamically stable clear dispersion of the water-soluble drug in the lipid phase. But unlike water-in-oil systems, stabilized reverse micelles do not depend on the presence of other surfactants and are thermodynamically stable. In the LPM(TM) system, water-soluble drugs are contained in the water space in the core of the micelles and are protected against degradation.
DOR anticipates proceeding towards clinical development of an oral form of the peptide hormone drug leuprolide using the LPM(TM) technology. Leuprolide is a synthetic peptide agonist of gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRh) that is used in treatment of endometriosis in women and prostate cancer in men. In preclinical studies in rats and dogs, DOR has demonstrated that the LPM(TM) technology results in high systemic bioavailability of intestinally absorbed leuprolide. In both animal models, the bioavailability of leuprolide ranged from 20 to 40 percent, compared to 2.2 percent for the control oral solution. Leuprolide is one of the most widely used anti-cancer agents for advanced prostate cancer in men. Injectable forms of leuprolide marketed under tradenames such as Lupron(R) and Eligard(R) had worldwide sales of approximately $1.8 billion in 2006.
