Allon Therapeutics Inc. has been granted a United States patent covering composition, delivery and method of use for AL-309, the lead product candidate in the company's second neuroprotection technology platform, called Activity Dependent Neurotrophic Factor (ADNF).

Gordon McCauley, president and CEO of Allon, said the company plans to begin human clinical trials in 2009 to evaluate AL-309 as a treatment for peripheral neuropathy, a condition suffered by millions of people resulting from nerve damage that leads to pain, discomfort, numbness and muscle weakness. Among the major causes of neuropathy are diabetes and cancer chemotherapy.

"Drug sales in the US and Europe amount to approximately $4 billion a year to treat neuropathy, yet these approved drugs are only moderately effective in treating neuropathy pain and have virtually no impact on the nerve damage that causes the pain," said McCauley. "Our preclinical studies have shown that AL-309 has neuro-protective activity relevant to neuropathy and potentially to other neurodegenerative conditions."

McCauley said development of its ADNF platform will bring Allon significant new commercial opportunities that are distinct from, and in addition, to the development of its first neuroprotection technology platform, Activity Development Neuroprotective Protein (ADNP) platform.

Allon's ADNP compounds AL-108 and AL-208 are now in Phase II clinical trials as treatments for Alzheimer's disease, cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia and mild cognitive impairment after coronary artery bypass graft surgery (MCI-CABG).