Oxford BioDynamics Plc (OBD), a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of epigenetic biomarkers based on regulatory genome architecture, for use within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, announced the grant of a key patent in India by the Office of the Controller General of Patents Designs and Trademarks covering EpiSwitch, the company's novel technology platform.

The Indian patent, number 290615, covers OBD's proprietary EpiSwitch technology designs for high resolution discovery and monitoring of regulatory conditional chromosome conformation signatures, as part of the regulatory architecture of the genome. As a biomarker modality, chromosome conformations have been shown to deliver highly informative stratifications of complex patient phenotypes, assist in better disease understanding and target identifications, and show high concordance with complex genetic and gene expression profiles. Predictive and prognostic stratifications developed by OBD on the basis of its proprietary EpiSwitch technology already offer significant improvements in patient stratifications, de-risking of drug discovery and development, and upgraded regulatory and market protection.

This patent will further extend coverage of Oxford BioDynamics' proprietary technology platform, EpiSwitch, into the increasingly important Indian market. Counterparts to this patent have already been granted in the USA, Europe, China, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore and South Africa.

Christian Hoyer Millar, CEO of Oxford BioDynamics, commented:  "We are delighted to announce the grant of this patent covering the use of EpiSwitch in this growing market. The grant of this patent in India further strengthens our global intellectual property portfolio as we position the Company for future growth. We believe EpiSwitch is a valuable and leading industry solution capable of characterising structural modifications to genome architecture that have a profound effect on health."