Singapore: MicuRx Pharmaceuticals, a privately-held biopharmaceutical company developing next-generation antibiotics, has received a composition of matter patent covering its clinical candidate, MRX-I, by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). MRX-I is a novel antibacterial oxazolidinone that targets infections due to multi-drug resistant Gram-positive pathogens.

"This patent is expected to be the first of a series to issue," said Zhengyu Yuan, president and chief executive officer of MicuRx. "With a scarcity of new antibiotics in development and ever-increasing bacterial resistance, we believe that MRX-I, with its high antimicrobial potency and enhanced safety profile, could offer a valuable option for treatment of infections caused by multi-drug resistant Gram-positive bacteria, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE)."

"We are pleased that the USPTO has affirmed MicuRx's intellectual property rights by granting this key patent for our first antibiotic candidate," added Mike Gordeev, Ph.D, chief scientific officer and executive vice president of MicuRx.

The company has research and development facilities in US and China.