Ziopharm Oncology, Inc. has received notice from the European Patent Office that it intends to grant a patent with claims covering certain pharmaceutical formulations of indibulin (ZIO-301) for oral administration and processes for manufacturing such formulations.

The company also announced that it has received a notice from the United States Patent and Trademark Office that it intends to grant a patent with claims covering certain methods for treating multidrug-resistant tumours or inhibiting metastasis with various pharmaceutical compounds, including indibulin.

Indibulin is an oral novel tubulin targeted agent. The drug is currently being evaluated in several phase I and phase I/II studies, both as a single agent and in combination with Tarceva and Xeloda, for the treatment of a variety of solid tumours.

"Indibulin is a promising molecule that in early clinical study has demonstrated the activity without the common and serious side effects, associated with this class of therapy," said Jonathan Lewis, MD, PhD, chief executive officer and chief medical officer of Ziopharm. "These patent notices of allowance extend our already substantial intellectual property portfolio for indibulin."

Indibulin is a novel synthetic anti-mitotic agent that binds to tubulin, destabilizes microtubule polymerization, arrests tumor cell growth at the G2/M phase and inhibits cell mobility and metastasis. Microtubules are well-established targets for anti-cancer drug development and tubulin-binding drugs such as taxanes and vinca alkaloids are currently widely used to treat cancer. Indibulin is orally available, lacks neurotoxicity and has efficacy in taxane refractory preclinical models.

Ziopharm Oncology, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development and commercialization of a diverse, risk-sensitive portfolio of in-licensed cancer drugs to address unmet medical needs.