"The allowance of this patent to our licensor AstraZeneca is a significant step forward in the protection of our approach to treating endometriosis with our proprietary endometriosis product, MPI-676,” said Thomas A. Collet, president and CEO. "This patent also extends protection for MPI-676 in the world’s largest pharmaceutical market in addition to Europe, Australia, China, Indonesia and South Africa, where patents have issued already.”
Endometriosis is a serious medical condition where endometrial stroma and glands that are normally present in the uterine cavity are found in other parts of the body. Endometriosis lesions can be found anywhere in the pelvic cavity. The most common symptom of endometriosis is pelvic pain, which often correlates to the menstrual cycle, but a woman with endometriosis may also experience pain that doesn’t correlate to her cycle. For many women, the pain of endometriosis is so severe and debilitating that it significantly impacts their daily lives.
It is estimated that seven to 10 percent of all women are affected by endometriosis, including 70 to 87 percent of women with chronic pelvic pain and 30 to 40 percent of all infertile women. Chronic pelvic pain, dysmenorrhea (painful periods) and dyspareunia (painful intercourse) are common symptoms of endometriosis. There are several medical treatment options, including danazol, GnRH agonists and progestins, each of which have limitations associated with patient response, tolerability, side-effect profile and duration of treatment.
About MPI-676
MPI-676 is based on anastrozole, an aromatase inhibitor (AI) with well-established, multi-year chronic safety and tolerability data. AIs are a class of drugs that reduce the amount of estrogen circulating in the body by binding to and inhibiting the enzyme aromatase, which is responsible for converting certain hormones to estrogen. In endometriosis, AIs act primarily by inhibiting local estradiol production inside the endometrial lesions.
AIs are currently used for the chronic treatment of estrogen-dependent tumors in postmenopausal women and are being investigated in a variety of women’s health conditions. Meditrina holds the exclusive worldwide rights to AstraZeneca’s patents and patent applications covering the use of AIs in gynecologic indications.
About Meditrina Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Meditrina Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a clinical-stage, specialty pharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing innovative therapies that treat women’s reproductive system disorders, with an initial focus on gynecologic and aromatase-mediated conditions with serious unmet medical needs. By identifying, leveraging and repurposing marketed products and product candidates at advanced stages of development, Meditrina’s novel therapies have the potential to significantly alter the way these women’s health conditions are treated. For more information about Meditrina Pharmaceuticals, please visit www.meditrina.com.
About AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca is a global, innovation-driven biopharmaceutical business with a primary focus on the discovery, development and commercialisation of prescription medicines. As a leader in gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, neuroscience, respiratory and inflammation, oncology and infectious disease medicines, AstraZeneca generated global revenues of US $32.8 billion in 2009. For more information please visit: www.astrazeneca.com
Meditrina Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Forward-Looking Statement Disclaimer This announcement may contain, in addition to historical information, certain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Such statements reflect management's current views and are based on certain assumptions. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated as a result of a number of factors. The company is developing several products for potential future marketing. There can be no assurance that such development efforts will succeed, that such products will receive required regulatory clearance or that, even if such regulatory clearance were received, such products would ultimately achieve commercial success.
