Idera Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a drug discovery and development company, announced the issuance of US patent 7,105,495 (the '495 patent) for immune modulatory oligonucleotides (IMO) that target Toll-like Receptor 9 (TLRs). The claims of this patent cover methods for modulating the immunostimulatory effect of novel dinucleotide motifs and CpG motifs by introducing modifications in the flanking sequence. These modifications include changes to the backbone and the nucleosides. Similar claims have been granted in Europe (EU 1,278,761) and Australia (AU 2001257366).

"Idera's TLR discovery and development programs are based on our ability to generate a broad range of novel TLR-targeted oligonucleotides, each with specific immune modulating characteristics", stated Sudhir Agrawal, D. Phil., Idera's chief executive officer and chief scientific officer. "The '495 patent further strengthens the intellectual property portfolio that protects our TLRtargeted therapeutic technology."

Idera presently has over 150 patents and patent applications world-wide covering agonists of TLR9, TLR8, and TLR7 and antagonists of TLR9. Idera's entire portfolio of DNA and RNA-based compounds has been designed through inhouse structure-activity relationship studies.