BioPorto has received notice from its patent advisor that the NGAL cutoff patent is issued in Japan. Thus, Bioporto has obtained the crucial IP rights for NGAL as a method for diagnosing acute kidney injury in Japan, Europe, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Africa, South Korea, Australia and Israel. Furthermore, patent applications are pending in a number of countries, including USA and China.
BioPorto’s NGAL cutoff patent covers the cutoff or threshold level above which NGAL indicates acute kidney injury, and a higher cutoff indicating an impending dialysis requirement. In addition, BioPorto has an NGAL “exclusion” patent application, which is complementary to the cutoff patent and concerns lower values of NGAL that exclude an immediate risk of kidney damage. The NGAL patents allow BioPorto both to secure the placement of its own products and enforce its rights in relation to competitors, if these should sell NGAL tests for the diagnosis of acute kidney injury without license access to the patents.
The kidney biomarker NGAL
Every year about 13 million people are struck by acute kidney injury worldwide, of whom about 4 million die. Nevertheless, there has been no real progress in methods of diagnosing kidney injury over the last half century. Existing methods, such as serum creatinine determination, only signal kidney failure 24-72 hours after the injury has taken place. In contrast, NGAL rises to diagnostic levels within a few hours of kidney injury and thus enables the physician to make vital clinical decisions before the damage progresses to potentially fatal renal shutdown. In addition to helping the patient, cost-benefit analyses show that implementing NGAL testing will contribute to reducing hospital costs in the management of kidney injury and its consequences.
Further details from:
Christina Thomsen, Investor Relations
Phone 45 29 00 00, mail investor@bioporto.com
