Singapore: Taiwan based TWi Biotechnology has received patent allowance for AC-201, its lead drug candidate, from the European Patent Office and the Patent Office of the Russian Federation.

The patent includes AC-201, or its pharmaceutically acceptable salts or active metabolites, for treatment of both type I and type II diabetes. This patent adds to TWi Biotechnology's broad intellectual property portfolio for AC-201. The patent provides a protection period up to year 2030, and has been previously allowed in US, Mexico, New Zealand and China.

"We are very pleased with the allowance of patent covering the use of AC-201 in treating diabetes in both Europe and Russia. Given the unique modes of action of AC-201, if successful, AC-201 will not only be able to help diabetic patients in controlling blood sugar, but also protect vital organs from the damage caused by the chronic inflammation associated with diabetes and obesity." said Dr Calvin C Chen, CEO, TWi Biotechnology.

"It is estimated Europe and Russia have a total of 80.1 million patients in 2013. We have conducted multiple clinical trials for AC-201 in the US and Asia with positive results, and hope to develop AC-201 soon in European countries, with the goal of bringing benefits to the vast number of diabetes patients in Europe after it obtains drug approval," he said.

TWi Biotechnology holds two US INDs for AC-201, one for controlling blood glucose in patients with type II diabetes and the other for treating gout in patients undertaking urate-lowering therapy. In addition to the good safety record of its active ingredient used in treating another chronic disease, AC-201 has demonstrated safety in multiple human clinical trials including 3 phase II trials with treatment periods up to 6 months in duration.