Paris, December 11th, 2008 - Hybrigenics, a bio-pharmaceutical company with a focus on research and development of new cancer treatments and specialized in protein interactions, announced today it has been granted the first in a series of patent applications covering the company’s proprietary chemical inhibitors of Ubiquitin-Specific Proteases (USPs).
Proteases play a key role in a number of pathological processes and several protease inhibitors are already available as drugs (for example, ACE-inhibitors for hypertension and HIV-1 proteases inhibitors in AIDS). Ubiquitin-Specific Proteases are proteases responsible for the recycling of proteins. Inhibiting the recycling of oncoproteins (proteins involved in the development of cancer) will force their degradation and it is expected that this will slow-down the progression of certain cancers.
The granting of this patent extends the intellectual property portfolio of Hybrigenics: it is its first patent in the field of innovative small molecules with drug potential. This new patent further indicates Hybrigenics’ progress towards pharmaceutical and therapeutic applications, moving downstream of the drug discovery pipeline after having focused on target research.
The recently granted European patent EP1749822 will subsequently be registered in 32 European countries. The corresponding worldwide application under the “Patent Cooperation Treaty” (PCT) is under way to extend further its geographical coverage, in particular to include the USA. Hybrigenics expects a rapid growth of its patenting activity around USPs and their inhibitors to strengthen its pioneer position in the field.
“This patent clearly positions Hybrigenics as a company with its own intellectual property in the field of a new class of potential innovative pharmaceutical ingredients,” said Rémi Delansorne, CEO at Hybrigenics.
About Hybrigenics
Hybrigenics is a bio-pharmaceutical company focusing its internal R&D programs on innovative targets and therapies for the treatment of cancer. Hybrigenics’ development program is based on inecalcitol, a vitamin D analogue, for the treatment of hormone-resistant prostate cancer in combination with Sanofi-Aventis’ Taxotere(R), which is the current gold-standard chemotherapeutic treatment for this indication. Hybrigenics’ research program explores the role of enzymes known as ubiquitin-specific proteases (USP) in the degradation of onco-proteins, and the effectiveness of proprietary USP inhibitors in treating various types of cancer.
Hybrigenics also offers a range of services to identify, validate and inhibit protein interactions to researchers in all areas of life sciences through its Hybrigenics Services unit, using its ISO 9001-certified high-throughput Yeast-Two Hybrid (Y2H) screening platform, its sophisticated bioinformatics tools and extensive database, along with its chemical library and chemical screening platform.
