Warp Drive Bio Awarded Patent Covering Proprietary Method For Discovering New Medicines
New issuance is first to cover company’s proprietary SMART™ Platform
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Warp Drive Bio, Inc., a life sciences company developing therapeutics that exploit the molecules and mechanisms of nature, announced today that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued the first patent covering the company’s Small Molecule-Assisted Receptor Targeting (SMART) platform. This new patent, “Identifying New Therapeutic Agents” (U.S. Patent No. 9,428,845) is held exclusively by Warp Drive Bio.
“At Warp Drive Bio, we strive to discover drugs based on the core principle of exploiting nature as the most powerful inventor of therapeutic agents. With this fundamental IP in place, we will continue to build a leading company searching for new transformative medicines to treat human disease.”
SMART enables the discovery of small molecule drugs targeting disease-causing proteins previously considered to be intractable to traditional pharmaceutical modalities. It is estimated that more than 80 percent of human proteins cannot be targeted by conventional drug discovery approaches – such as small molecules and protein biologics – either because they do not contain a binding site required by small molecule drugs, or are intracellular and therefore inaccessible to biologics. SMART drugs bind to an intracellular receptor and that complex assumes the properties of an "intracellular biologic" providing the opportunity for therapeutic modulation of the disease-causing protein. This novel approach, and associated intellectual property (IP), is enabling Warp Drive Bio researchers to address targets previously considered “undruggable.”
“Warp Drive Bio is committed to developing ground-breaking therapeutics by exploiting its proprietary technology platforms,” said Laurence Reid, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Warp Drive Bio. “The issuance of this key patent demonstrates the novelty of our approach to discover new drug candidates through our SMART platform. This is the first fundamental patent to issue from our IP portfolio, and is an important plank in the foundation of our business.”
Dr. Reid continued, “At Warp Drive Bio, we strive to discover drugs based on the core principle of exploiting nature as the most powerful inventor of therapeutic agents. With this fundamental IP in place, we will continue to build a leading company searching for new transformative medicines to treat human disease.”
About Warp Drive Bio
Warp Drive Bio is exploiting the molecules and mechanisms of nature to create transformative medicines. The company operates on the core principle that nature is the world’s most powerful inventor of new drugs, unconstrained by the mechanistic and synthetic limitations of traditional medicinal chemistry. Warp Drive Bio is deploying its proprietary Genome Mining and SMART™ (Small Molecule Assisted Receptor Targeting) platforms to discover novel medicines that have the potential to make a significant difference in patients’ lives. The company was launched in 2012 through a strategic partnership with Sanofi and with financing from Third Rock Ventures and Greylock Partners. For more information, please visit www.warpdrivebio.com.