Silence Therapeutics plc, a leading global RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics company, reported that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has completed its re-examination of four key RNAi patents that form part of the foundational “Zamore Design Rule” patent families. Following a review requested by an anonymous third party during 2010, the USPTO has concluded that the reissued claims are patentable and has issued Notices of Intent to Issue Re-examination Certificates. The prior art cited in the re-examinations was unsuccessful in invalidating the patents.
The four patents (US 7,459,547, US 7,732,593, US 7,772,203 and US 7,750,144) form part of the foundational “Zamore Design Rule” patent families that disclose various efficacy-enhancing methods and structural elements for RNAi therapeutics. Silence has exclusively licensed three “Zamore Design Rule” patent families in their entirety for applications in the human healthcare field from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. The three patent families generally disclose methods of enhancing the silencing activity of RNAi agents through certain structural modifications.
The claims associated with the re-examinations include coverage for methods of enhancing silencing of a pharmaceutical composition containing short interfering RNA (siRNA), micro RNA (miRNA), pre-miRNA or short hairpin RNA (shRNA) molecules.
Thomas Christély, chief executive officer of Silence Therapeutics, said: “We are very pleased that the USPTO has reissued these four patents. This outcome sends a clear message regarding the strength of Silence’s intellectual property. We believe that there is significant value in the Zamore technology as a fundamental tool for the development and commercialisation of RNAi therapeutics with enhanced efficacy and will continue to work to translate this value into our own RNAi therapeutic pipeline.”
Silence Therapeutics is building and strengthening its global, diverse and competitive intellectual property portfolio. This provides the Company and its partners with a strong proprietary position in the RNAi therapeutics space. At present, Silence’s global patent portfolio contains issued patents and pending applications covering strategic areas of RNAi therapeutic development. These include multiple proprietary siRNA delivery technologies, potent siRNA sequences specific for high-value disease targets and key RNAi sequence and chemical modifications.
Silence Therapeutics plc is a leading biotechnology company dedicated to the discovery, development and delivery of targeted, systemic RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics for the treatment of serious diseases.