Soligenix, Inc, a late-stage biopharmaceutical company, announced that the United States Patent Office (US PTO) has issued a patent (US 7,704,985) entitled "Treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Related Bowel Diseases." The patent claims the use of beclomethasone dipropionate (BDP) to treat irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a painful gastrointestinal condition that affects approximately 15% of the population in the industrialized world.

"There is an increasing awareness that IBS results in part from an inflammatory cascade in the GI tract, which makes it amenable to treatment with topically active steroids such as oral BDP," said Christopher J Schaber, president and chief executive officer of Soligenix. "This potentially expands the available treatment options for IBS. The granting of the US patent for BDP in IBS further demonstrates its potential novelty and utility in treating inflammatory GI diseases."

Dr Schaber continued, "This is part of our strategy of broadening our intellectual property platform in inflammatory gastrointestinal diseases with oral BDP and other topically active steroids. We believe that our oral BDP formulations will have utility in other inflammatory GI diseases as well such as Graft-versus-Host disease (GVHD), radiation enteritis, and Crohn's disease."

In addition to issued patents and pending worldwide patent applications held by or exclusively licensed to Soligenix, the company also benefits from orphan drug designations in the US and in Europe on orBec for the treatment of GI GVHD, which provide for seven and 10 years of post-approval market exclusivity, respectively. Soligenix is also continuing to actively build intellectual property around oral BDP in other inflammatory conditions and has obtained orphan drug designation for the treatment of paediatric Crohn's Disease.

Beclomethasone dipropionate (BDP) is a highly potent, topically active corticosteroid that has a local effect on inflamed tissue.

orBec represents a first-of-its-kind oral, locally acting therapy tailored to treat the gastrointestinal manifestation of GVHD, the organ system where GVHD is most frequently encountered and highly problematic.

Soligenix is a late-stage biopharmaceutical company developing products to treat life-threatening side effects of cancer treatments and serious gastrointestinal diseases, and vaccines for certain bioterrorism agents.