Singapore: Brisbane-based drug discovery and development company Alchemia has been granted a key US patent critical to its platform oncology technology.

The patent is being regarded as a critical development milestone for the company and provides US protection to the company's proprietary drug, HA-Irinotecan, in the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer. This drug is currently being evaluated on more than 400 patients in a pivotal phase III clinical trial at 76 sites. The trials are being held globally.

The patent, titled Hyaluronan-Chemotherapeutic agent formulations for the treatment of colon cancer, also protects Alchemia's HyACT drug delivery platform as applied to a range of other anti-cancer drugs that can be used in the treatment of drug-resistant colorectal cancer.

Dr Mike West, vice president, Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer, Alchemia, said the patent demonstrated the broad clinical and commercial capability of the HyACT platform. "This patent fits neatly in a suite of granted patents in other jurisdictions, including Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Taiwan and Europe, and will greatly enhance Alchemia's efforts in commercializing HA-Irinotecan," he said.

Other US patent applications by the company of varying scope and specificity are currently pending. These applications are expected to further cement the company's monopoly rights over the entire platform technology.

The patent which has a term through to July 13, 2021, is presently awarded 846 days of patent term adjustment.

"This patent term adjustment may enable ACL to commandeer further potential revenues across 2.3 years resulting from the HA-Irinotecan asset," said Dr West. "Taking into account the patent term adjustment, the patent may expire as late as November 6, 2023, subject to any further adjustments or restrictions by the US Patent & Trade Mark Office."

HyACT technology inventor and ACL Chief Scientific Officer Dr Tracey Brown said the patent claims substantiate HyACT's clinical novelty and provide protection for several HyACT targeted drugs in one of the world's largest oncology markets. "This patent substantially expands the commercial application of our proprietary HyACT technology, and provides Alchemia with the commercial rationale to continue to develop its extensive pipeline of oncology drugs," she added.