SciFluor Life Sciences, LLC, an emerging clinical stage biopharmaceutical company that creates innovative therapeutics for patients with ophthalmologic and neurologic disease, announced that the US Patent and Trademark Office (US PTO) has issued US Patent No. 8,901,144 with claims covering the novel compound SF0166. SciFluor’s SF0166 is a small molecule integrin antagonist designed to treat retinal disease, including Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) and Diabetic Macular Edema (DME), via topical administration to the eye.

Topical administration of medications (eye drops) for treating the retina in order to eliminate the need to inject compounds to the back of the eye has been considered an enormous challenge until now. Current treatments require repeated injections into the back of the eye in order to get enough of the drug where it is needed. A drug that could localise in the back of the eye after administration as an eye drop would remove the need for repeated injections. To date, no topically administered drug has been approved for these indications.

Ben Askew, vice president of Research, said, “The issuance of the patent covering SF0166 provides validation of our fluorine-centered approach to rapidly bringing new transformational therapies to patients with serious illnesses. SF0166 demonstrates how the appropriate fluorine-containing modifications can improve the physical properties of a molecule to address the challenge of getting enough drug to the back of the eye without injections.”

Dr. Askew is the lead on the SF0166 therapeutic programme, which is targeted to treat both wet Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) as well as Diabetic Macular Edema (DME).

“The scientific depth of this team and the team’s ability to rapidly evolve this candidate and to obtain an issued patent protecting this lead compound in such an enormous field of retinal disease is highly impressive. We are excited to advance this program. This is the first of many opportunities at SciFluor that we are pursuing to strategically capitalise on the transformational power of fluorine,” said Omar Amirana, MD, SciFluor’s chief executive officer and senior vice president at Allied Minds.

SciFluor is a subsidiary of Allied Minds an innovative US science and technology development and commercialisation company.

SciFluor is developing SF0166, a potent and selective small molecule inhibitor of integrin avß3 with an optimum balance of physiochemical properties to allow it to distribute to the retina in high concentrations after topical administration to the eye. It has been tested in an extensive set of pre-clinical assays and shown to be effective in a validated in vivo model of wet AMD. The non-fluorinated compound on which it is based does not distribute appreciably to the back of the eye after topical administration.

Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is the most common cause of severe vision loss in older Americans. It affects central vision and may interfere with daily tasks such as reading and driving. Macular degeneration affects the retina in two forms dry and wet AMD, also called neovascular AMD. Wet AMD is frequently accompanied by relatively sudden loss of vision. This is caused by the growth of abnormal blood vessels underneath the retina that leak fluid or blood. Recent advances in the treatment of wet AMD can now prevent further loss of vision, or even restore vision in some cases, if treatment is sought promptly. These treatments require frequent injections of biologic drugs into the back of the eye performed in a doctor’s office. Generally, the effectiveness of these treatments decreases with time, therefore improved treatments are actively being sought. A topically administered drug that is safe and effective would be a major advance in patient care.