Australian vaccine development company BioDiem Ltd has received the additional US patent grant that expands the patent position for the company’s antimicrobial compound BDM-I.

BDM-I is a novel antimicrobial in development for the treatment of infectious diseases and has shown activity against a wide range of micro-organisms. BioDiem has benefited from work conducted by major research institutions in the United States that have undertaken analysis of BDM-I at no cost to BioDiem.

The new US patent specifically covers BDM-I’s activity against Plasmodium falciparum, the protozoan (a type of microorganism) responsible for causing the most commonly severe form of malaria, and Trichomonas vaginalis, the protozoan responsible for causing a common sexually transmitted disease named trichomoniasis.

The new patent supplements the existing US patent grant for BDM-I for treatment of the extremely common condition of vulvovaginitis (vaginal inflammation), expanding BDM-I’s intellectual property protections across major new indications. Notably the patent granted for BDM-I’s activity in vulvovaginitis specifically included some of the most prevalent vaginitis-causing microorganisms.

“BioDiem continues to develop data supporting BDM-I’s broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity against important infectious diseases with the aim of substantially increasing the value of the compound in anticipation of securing a licensing agreement”, said BioDiem chief executive officer Julie Phillips.

Malaria affects millions of people worldwide each year, mostly in the regions of Asia, Africa and South America which have the highest populations of mosquitoes carrying the disease-causing protozoa. Most cases involve fevers, but the World Health Organization estimated that approximately 655,000 people died of the disease in 2010. These deaths are largely due to infection with Plasmodium falciparum. A number of anti-malarial drugs exist, but many have undesirable side-effects and increasing resistance to the drugs is a major issue in preventing the spread of the disease.

Trichomoniasis is an extremely common infection which usually presents as inflammation of the female urogenitary tract. Infection with trichomoniasis has been associated with an increased likelihood of the development of some cancers, HIV infection and reproductive issues.

BioDiem is focussed on discovering, developing and commercialising world-class research and technology for vaccines. BioDiem’s core technologies derive from its expertise with the Live Attenuated Influenza Virus (LAIV), which has been developed as an intranasal vaccine to prevent infection from seasonal and pandemic influenza.