NicOx acquires Nitromed's NO-donating patents

Published: 23-Apr-2009
Regulatory Research & Development

NicOx is to buy Nitromed's unlicensed patent estate covering nitric oxide-donating compounds, giving the French biopharmaceutical firm the strongest intellectual property position on this technology worldwide.


NicOx is to buy Nitromed's unlicensed patent estate covering nitric oxide-donating compounds, giving the French biopharmaceutical firm the strongest intellectual property position on this technology worldwide.

NicOx will initially pay Nitromed Euro 2m (US$2.6m), followed by a further â"šÂ¬4m (US$5.2m) upon NicOx fulfilling certain future business criteria. NicOx is not acquiring any rights to BiDil (isosorbide dinitrate/hydralazine hydrochloride).

Michele Garufi, chairman and chief executive of NicOx said: "Our ambitious objective is to transform NicOx into a sustainable biopharmaceutical company with sales and marketing operations in the major markets, which would be driven by our internal research and development."

She expects NicOx to change radically over the next few years, due to its anticipated participation in the future commercialisation of naproxcinod.

"Nevertheless, the research and development of new nitric oxide-donating drugs in our core therapeutic domains will remain an important part of our activities," added Garufi.

Nitromed halted its drug discovery research programmes in March 2006, citing financial considerations. This research had previously been focused on synthesising and patenting new chemical entities (NCEs) combining an existing, marketed medicine with a nitric oxide donor. NicOx is acquiring the vast majority of the resulting patents, which represent Nitromed's unlicensed intellectual property portfolio on nitric oxide-donating compounds. This includes numerous composition of matter and treatment patents (as well as pending patent applications) in the US and other pharmaceutical markets, many of which have expiration dates later than 2020. These include a large number with potential uses for inflammatory and cardiometabolic disorders, which are core areas for NicOx" internal r&d. NicOx is also taking royalty free licenses to additional patents under this agreement.

Ennio Ongini, vice president of research at NicOx, said: "Taking complete ownership of these patents will allow NicOx to become even more versatile in its application of this complex technology and expand the areas where we can potentially initiate new internal research programmes."

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