 | |  |
CombinatoRx gets its first drug patent
By Rodney Brown
Boston-based CombinatoRx Inc. has been issued its first patent, covering one of its anticancer drug candidates, by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. According to the company, the patent covers one of the first in a new class of therapeutics that arrest tumor cell division at multiple phases of the cell cycle, leading to tumor cell death.
Using a proprietary technology, CombinatoRx searches and discovers novel drug combinations. The resulting new product comprises two existing drugs that act together to function where neither may have worked individually. The new patent protects the combination of two components in a pharmaceutical composition.
"This patent demonstrates that we can secure pharmaceutical composition patents on combinations of drugs and it will provide robust commercial protection for our products going forward," said Alexis Borisy, CEO of CombinatoRx, in a statement. "CombinatoRx is the first company to systematically search combinations of existing drugs to discover and develop novel combination products. This patent is an important step in the execution of our business model."
CombinatoRx is a privately held pharmaceutical company. Founded in 2000 by scientists from Harvard and MIT, the company has raised $60M in venture capital to date.
From Mass High Tech, May 29, 2003
| | |
