Cellmid (ASX: CDY) has received a notice of allowance for a U.S. patent application protecting the use of midkine-specific DNA and RNA antisense molecules that disrupt MK expression and prevent the formation of surgical adhesions.
Patent application 13/539,247 complements the already granted US patent 10/547,011 that covers the use of MK-antibodies.
Other patents in this family have already been granted in Japan and are under examination in Europe.
The surgical adhesion patents make up one of the five key families which provide the company’s dominant intellectual property position over the treatment of inflammatory diseases by targeting midkine.
Surgical Adhesion
Surgical adhesion is the build-up of internal scarring following surgery. Adhesions frequently occur between different organs or between organs and the abdominal wall, causing pain and even infertility in women.
Although adhesions occur in over 95% of abdominal operations, this significant medical problem has been under-recognised.
Adhesions account for 6% of all readmissions following surgery, making it a massive and costly unmet medical need; the post-surgical anti-adhesion market is estimated at approximately $3 billion in the US and $5 billion globally.
There are no drugs available for preventing surgical adhesions.
Further surgery to sever adhesions often results in more adhesions while the insertion of bio-absorbable barriers during surgery is often ineffective.
However, an anti-MK drug could be administered directly to the site of surgery, presenting a feasible and effective therapy for adhesions.
Cellmid is currently preparing its anti-MK antibody program for “first in class” clinical trials.
One of the objectives of the trial is to demonstrate that MK can be a safe therapeutic target.
Evidence of safety of an anti-MK agent could open up opportunities for a number of pipeline products due to the strong intellectual property position Cellmid holds around this novel disease target.
Cellmid’s patent portfolio currently includes over 80 patents in 19 patent families. The patents cover the use of MK and anti-MK agents for therapeutic purposes in a number of diseases, including cancer, inflammatory conditions and autoimmune diseases.
In addition, patents covering the use of MK as a diagnostic marker in cancer and other disorders provide for a companion diagnostic, potentially accelerating clinical development.
Midkine
The company recently completed a study of 574 apparently healthy volunteers that has highlighted MK’s use as a predictor of serious illness.
Four of the six subjects with elevated MK levels that the company had ethics approval to follow up on had a history of cancer, autoimmune disease and an acute inflammatory condition.
The CK3000 provides Cellmid with a clear range of normal midkine levels that will play a key role in future regulatory submissions for MK diagnostics for monitoring wellness, disease recurrence or treatment efficacy in any cancer.
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