Merrion receives further oral drug delivery patent

Merrion Pharmaceuticals has been issued with European Patent Number EP1131344: 'retro-inversion peptides that target gastro-intestinal tract transport receptors and related methods.'

This further expands Merrion's Gastrointestinal Permeation Enhancement Technology (GIPET) technology base, and covers targeting peptides that enhance oral drug delivery by specifically binding to gastrointestinal tract transport receptors. Targeting peptides covered under this patent have been successfully used to deliver insulin orally in animals.

'This patent is significant in that it provides another approach in our platform of technologies for the oral delivery of problematic drugs,' said Thomas Leonard, PhD, chief scientific officer, Merrion. 'This versatile technology provides new opportunities for site selective drug targeting to specific organs and tissues, and can be applied to active drug moieties with a variety of physical-chemical properties. We are excited about the prospects of utilizing this new technology in our own product development and for our partners.'

Established in 2004, Merrion is a privately held, specialty pharmaceutical venture focused on novel, oral drug delivery solutions to improve product performance and patient compliance. The company develops and manufactures leading-edge technologies to meet the growing needs of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. The company's worldwide headquarters are in Wilmington, NC, US, while its r&d and manufacturing operations, Merrion BioPharma, are located in Dublin, Ireland.