Elan Corporation plc and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a division of Wyeth, announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office recently issued Neuralab Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Elan, three patents for the companies' joint research on immunotherapeutic approaches to the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

US Patent Number 6,750,324, entitled "Humanized and chimeric N-terminal amyloid beta-antibodies," claims pharmaceutical compositions comprising an antibody that specifically bind to a region within the beta amyloid molecule.

US Patent Numbers 6,743,427 and 6,761,888, entitled "Prevention and treatment of amyloidogenic disease" and "Passive immunization treatment of Alzheimer's disease" respectively, claim methods of prophylactically or therapeutically treating Alzheimer's disease, including the administration of a pharmaceutical composition comprising an antibody that specifically binds to a region within the beta amyloid molecule, a release from Elan says.

"These patents represent novel approaches in pursuing beta amyloid immunotherapy, with the goal of developing a treatment for Alzheimer's disease," said Lars Ekman, executive vice president and president, Research and Development, Elan.

"Elan and Wyeth maintain a strong commitment to leading edge immunotherapy research. These new patents are important additions to the Alliance's already strong patent portfolio," said Robert R Ruffolo, president, Wyeth Research and senior vice president, Wyeth.

Elan and Wyeth, solely or jointly, are the owners or exclusive licensees of more than fifty US patents and/or patent applications along with corresponding foreign patents supporting their Alzheimer's immunotherapy approach, the release continues.

In 2000, Elan and Wyeth formed a collaboration to discover, develop and commercialize immunotherapeutic approaches to treat and prevent Alzheimer's disease. The companies are currently pursuing beta amyloid immunotherapy for mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease in a Phase I safety study of a humanized monoclonal antibody, AAB-001. Elan and Wyeth are also developing ACC-001, a novel beta amyloid-related active immunization approach that is in the late preclinical discovery phase.