NEW YORK, Jan. 22, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NeoStem, Inc. (NYSE MKT:NBS) today announced the expansion of intellectual property protection around its lead product candidate, AMR-001, with the grant of U.S. patent number 8,343,485 entitled "Compositions and methods of Vascular Injury Repair." This is the third U.S. granted patent for AMR-001, protecting further expansion of its CD34+ chemotactic stem cell product composition claim as well as method of sourcing and administration of cells claims.
Dr. Andrew L. Pecora, Chief Medical Officer of NeoStem, commented, "NeoStem's intellectual property portfolio around its phase 2 stem cell compound continues to expand in critical ways. With the grants of its last three U.S. patents, AMR-001 now enjoys greater protection in terms of its CD34 cell content and the indications for its use, which include treating any vascular injury caused by vascular insufficiency, covering CD34 stem cells sourced from bone marrow or peripheral blood and administered parenterally into an artery, vein or muscle."
"This successful expansion of NeoStem's intellectual property improves our ability to protect our most mature clinical asset," said Dr. Robin L. Smith, Chairman and CEO of NeoStem. "We believe the IP around AMR-001, our stem cell therapy, is strong and broad and we continue to pursue incremental protection with no fewer than 30 additional patents pending around the world."
For more information on the clinical trial please visit http://www.neostem.com or view the NeoStem corporate presentation at www.neostem.com/investor-relations/. To read the complete patent, please visit http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.htm.
About NeoStem, Inc.
NeoStem, Inc. continues to develop and build on its core capabilities in cell therapy, capitalizing on the paradigm shift that we see occurring in medicine. In particular, we anticipate that cell therapy will have a significant role in the fight against chronic disease and in lessening the economic burden that these diseases pose to modern society. We are emerging as a technology and market leading company in this fast developing cell therapy market. Our multi-faceted business strategy combines a state-of-the-art contract development and manufacturing subsidiary, Progenitor Cell Therapy, LLC ("PCT"), with a medically important cell therapy product development program, enabling near and long-term revenue growth opportunities. We believe this expertise and existing research capabilities and collaborations will enable us to achieve our mission of becoming a premier cell therapy company.
Our contract development and manufacturing service business supports the development of proprietary cell therapy products. NeoStem's most clinically advanced therapeutic, AMR-001, is being developed at Amorcyte, LLC ("Amorcyte"), which we acquired in October 2011. Amorcyte is developing a cell therapy for the treatment of cardiovascular disease and is enrolling patients in a Phase 2 trial to investigate AMR-001's efficacy in preserving heart function after a heart attack. Athelos Corporation ("Athelos"), which is approximately 80%-owned by our subsidiary, PCT, is collaborating with Becton-Dickinson in the early clinical exploration of a T-cell therapy for autoimmune conditions. In addition, pre-clinical assets include our VSEL™ Technology platform as well as our mesenchymal stem cell product candidate for regenerative medicine. Our service business and pipeline of proprietary cell therapy products work in concert, giving us a competitive advantage that we believe is unique to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Supported by an experienced scientific and business management team and a substantial intellectual property estate, we believe we are well positioned to succeed.
For more information on NeoStem, please visit www.neostem.com.
Forward-Looking Statements for NeoStem, Inc.
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements reflect management's current expectations, as of the date of this press release, and involve certain risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include statements herein with respect to the successful execution of the Company's business strategy, including with respect to the Company's or its partners' successful development of AMR-001 and other cell therapeutics, the size of the market for such products, its competitive position in such markets, the Company's ability to successfully penetrate such markets and the market for its contract development and manufacturing business, and the efficacy of protection from its patent portfolio, as well as the future of the cell therapeutics industry in general, including the rate at which such industry may grow. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including but not limited to matters described under the "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 20, 2012 and in the Company's other periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, all of which are available on its website. The Company does not undertake to update its forward-looking statements. The Company's further development is highly dependent on future medical and research developments and market acceptance, which is outside its control.