MARSEILLE, France, Nov. 2, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- VECT-HORUS, a biotechnology company that designs and develops peptide vectors for addressing drugs or imaging agents to the brain and other organs, announces the strengthening of its patent portfolio with the granting of two patents in several major countries and particularly in the United States.
These two patents protect peptide vectors that facilitate the targeting of drugs or imaging agents to organs, including the brain. Entitled "Peptide Derivatives and Use Thereof as Carriers for Molecules in the Form of Conjugates" and "Peptide Derivatives, Preparation Thereof and Uses Thereof", these two patents have been issued in the United States under No. US 8729029 and US 8877716, respectively.
The first patent was filed in 2008 and has since been granted in Europe, South Africa and Eurasia. Furthermore, a notice of allowance was received from Australia, China and Japan. A further extension of this patent claiming optimized vectors was also filed in several countries, including the United States.
The second patent was filed in 2010 and has since been granted in Eurasia and France.
At the same time, VECT-HORUS filed another patent claiming the use of a new chemical entity based on vectorisation of neurotensin with one of its proprietary peptide vectors.
All of these patents, filed jointly with the CNRS and Aix-Marseille University (AMU), strengthen VECT-HORUS' position in terms of intellectual proprietary and competitive advantages on its VECTrans® technology.
Since its inception, VECT-HORUS has filed several international patents, divided into four families, which constitute a high value strategic asset.
"With the issuance of these patents, we confirm the competitive advantage of our strategy for the discovery of target receptors and peptide-vectors in the RMT (Receptor Mediated Transcytosis) field. VECT-HORUS now has a strong intellectual property portfolio, and these new patents strengthen the protection of our VECTrans® technology. Expanding our patent portfolio is critical for our strategy aimed at transporting to the brain and other organs the therapeutic or imaging molecules of our partners." said Alexandre TOKAY, VECT-HORUS' President.
About VECT-HORUS
VECT-HORUS is a French biotechnology company that designs and develops peptide-vectors to facilitate the delivery of drugs or imaging agents toward the brain and other organs. By combining pharmaceutical agents to peptide vectors, VECT-HORUS enables their transport across the BBB that significantly impedes brain delivery of most drugs.
From this perspective, VECT-HORUS has identified and validated highly specific and stable vectors protected by several families of patents and patent applications.
The company has already demonstrated proof of concept of the technology in animal models by vectorizing different molecules, among them the endogenous neuropeptide neurotensin, which is currently in regulatory preclinical studies. The technology has also enabled the signing of a scientific collaboration agreement with SANOFI in the field of neurodegenerative diseases.
Founded in 2005, VECT-HORUS is a spin-off from the CNRS-AMU NICN laboratory directed by Dr. Michel Khrestchatisky. Its founders are Alexandre Tokay, Chairman, and Michel Khrestchatisky, Scientific Counsel. VECT-HORUS has 17 employees, mostly in R&D.
VECT-HORUS is identified by the CNRS as one of the 15 success stories among 1,000 spinoffs from its laboratories.
More about VECT-HORUS at www.vect-horus.com
Contacts
ATCG Press
Marie PUVIEUX +33 6 10 54 36 72 (France)
Jean-Mehdi GRANGEON +33 (0)6 62 22 00 24 (ROW)
presse@atcg-partners.com
VECT-HORUS
Alexandre TOKAY
CEO and co-founder
+ 33 6 30 40 36 95
alexandre.tokay@vect-horus.com
PR in English http://hugin.info/164689/R/1960521/716300.pdf
HUG#1960521