Marina Biotech, Inc, a leading RNAi-based drug discovery and development company, announced that the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ) has issued a Notice of Acceptance for patent application 566281. Allowed claims cover one of the company's key delivery peptides that contains a "tumour homing" motif.

This patent application adds to the company's broad existing peptide based delivery technology which includes nanoparticle forming peptides and a Trp-cage peptide phage display library for selection of targeting ligands. Marina Biotech also announced the establishment of another early research effort with a major pharmaceutical company focused on the evaluation of its proprietary amphoteric liposomal formulations for pulmonary delivery. Additional details of the relationship were not disclosed. This adds to the company's existing ongoing research and collaboration efforts and represents the sixth such effort announced in the last 12 months.

"In the past year, we have strengthened our intellectual property position by adding over 55 issued patents to our global patent portfolio with additions that significantly protect our nucleic acid delivery technology," stated J Michael French, president & CEO of Marina Biotech. "Including this recent patent allowance, we now have over 50 patents worldwide protecting a broad array of nucleic acid delivery platforms including our peptide nanoparticle delivery technology, which includes this 'tumour homing' peptide; our tkRNAi platform for bacterial delivery of expressed short hairpin RNA; and our amphoteric liposomal delivery platform. Furthermore, Marina Biotech has over 200 pending patent applications worldwide, which include patent applications for our novel and proprietary DiLA2 delivery platform and we have one of the youngest patent estates in the RNAi sector providing patent protection well into the late 2020s."

Effective delivery is a well-recognized hurdle in the development of RNAi-based therapeutics and Marina Biotech has taken a multifaceted approach to solving the challenges in the development of siRNAs as drugs. The addition of this patent further strengthens the Company's leadership in the field of RNAi delivery and complements the existing DiLA2 liposome, amphoteric liposome and tkRNAi technologies.

Marina Biotech is a biotechnology company, focused on the development and commercialization of therapeutic products based on RNA interference (RNAi).