http://media.marketwire.com/attachments/200903/512458_Lpath-New-Logo-2.jpghttp://at.marketwire.com/accesstracking/AccessTrackingLogServlet?PrId=878782&ProfileId=051205&sourceType=1SAN DIEGO, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 04/25/12 -- Lpath, Inc. (OTCBB: LPTN), the industry leader in lipidomics-based therapeutics, received official notification from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that it has been issued a key patent protecting Lpathomab, a monoclonal antibody against lysophosphatidic acid (LPA).
The newly issued U.S. Patent No. 8,158,124 claims antibody compositions directed against LPA, a bioactive lipid that has been validated as a target in multiple disease states.
"The issuance of our first Lpathomab patent is a major milestone for Lpath and an essential step in the product's development," stated Roger Sabbadini, Lpath's founder, chief science officer and an inventor on the patent. "It provides further protection for our drug-development program that promises to solve important unmet clinical needs."
LPA is a well-validated drug target: peer-reviewed journals have established that LPA promotes tumorigenesis, metastasis and fibrotic disease and plays a significant role in neuropathic pain and in neurotrauma, including traumatic brain injury (TBI) and spinal cord injury (SCI).
Lpath and collaborators have recently shown that Lpathomab provides protection against neuronal cell death in TBI and SCI studies, where size of the injury was reduced after TBI; and behavioral function was improved after both TBI and SCI. Future studies will be directed toward examining Lpathomab's activity against a range of CNS disorders in which cell death is observed, including Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.
Scott Pancoast, Lpath's president and CEO, commented: "The issuance of a composition-of-matter patent for an anti-LPA antibody significantly enhances the commercial value of our Lpathomab program. The LPA signaling pathway has been well implicated as a contributor to disease progression, and while others are intervening downstream at the LPA-receptor level, we believe the direct approach of neutralizing LPA itself has certain advantages that will prove out over time."
Lpathomab was generated using Lpath's proprietary ImmuneY2 technology.