The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted US patent No. 8,557,298, a continuation-in-part of US Patent No. 7,648,695 to Provectus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a development-stage oncology and dermatology biopharmaceutical company. Both patents provide coverage for new chemotherapeutical medicaments and medical uses for the treatment of cancer.
The new patent, entitled "Medicaments for Chemotherapeutic Treatment of Disease," provides detailed protection of the company's investigational oncology drug PV-10, which is an injectable formulation of Rose Bengal. The coverage complements the company's recently received patent (US Patent No. 8,530,675) covering processes for manufacturing Rose Bengal for pharmaceutical use and Rose Bengal analogs covered in the earlier patent (USP ‘695).
Dr Craig Dees, CEO of Provectus, said, "This is our 27th patent awarded in the United States, and it expands and deepens the protection of our flagship drug candidate PV-10, which has successfully completed phase 2 clinical testing for the treatment of metastatic melanoma, and is making progress in the treatment of other cancers."
He added, "PV-10 has three attributes that suggest immense potential as a treatment for cancers: the decades-long track record of safety of Rose Bengal in former medical uses; mounting clinical and non-clinical evidence that PV-10 induces systemic immunologic activity secondary to its primary ablative role; and a clinical safety profile of PV-10 that makes it an attractive candidate for combination strategies for the treatment of advanced disease. We are very pleased that the USPTO has accepted our application for expanded protection of this potentially valuable intellectual property."
Provectus Pharmaceuticals specializes in developing oncology and dermatology therapies. Its novel oncology drug PV-10 is designed to selectively target and destroy cancer cells without harming surrounding healthy tissue, significantly reducing potential for systemic side effects.