KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa., May 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Cytokine PharmaSciences, Inc. (CPSI) today announced issuance of US Patent 7,205,107 entitled "Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) promoter polymorphism in inflammatory disease." This patent, together with US Patent 6,998,238 issued in 2006 and entitled "Method for determining MIF content," expands the Company's MIF intellectual property portfolio to include MIF diagnostics.
CPSI has an extensive patent portfolio focused on MIF, including methods for neutralization. Excess production of MIF is linked to many conditions, including arthritis, asthma, cancer, sepsis, inflammatory bowel disease and various infections and autoimmune disorders. Neutralization of MIF biological activity has been shown to have a protective effect against such diseases. Most studies have been performed using anti-MIF antibodies; synthetic small molecule inhibitors of MIF have also successfully treated these diseases in animal models.
CPSI has licensed rights to antibody neutralization of MIF to Baxter BioScience and to anti-MIF receptor antibodies to Genmab, A/S. CPSI is also actively pursuing small molecule MIF inhibitors. The application of the diagnostic methods described in the patents granted for protein and gene polymorphism will assist in the development of novel therapies for several important diseases using these MIF neutralization strategies.
Denny Willson, President and CEO of Cytokine PharmaSciences, stated: "MIF is increasingly recognized as an important target in the diagnosis and treatment of many disease states, including Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, gastric cancer and sepsis. We are therefore very excited to have this diagnostics patent added to our IP portfolio as we believe it will lead to development of effective anti-MIF therapeutics."
Cytokine PharmaSciences is a biopharmaceutical company located in King of Prussia (near Philadelphia), Pennsylvania. The company licenses technologies from academia and other sources, develops products from those technologies and outlicenses the products to third parties for marketing. For more information, go to http://www.cytokinepharmasciences.com.
Cytokine PharmaSciences, Inc.CONTACT: Dennis F. Willson, President & CEO of Cytokine PharmaSciences,Inc., +1-610-687-1776 ext. 211
Web site: http://www.cytokinepharmasciences.com//
