Peregrine Pharmaceuticals announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued U.S. Patent Number No. 7,455,833 to the company. This patent includes broad claims covering anti-viral applications of antibodies that directly bind to aminophospholipids. According to the press release, the aminophospholipid family of phospholipids represents a novel target for anti-viral therapies.

Steven W. King, president and CEO of Peregrine, commented, “Issuance of this broad anti-viral patent significantly expands our intellectual property leadership the field of phospholipid-targeting antibodies. Antibodies falling under the scope of this new patent are already showing promise in preclinical studies of lethal virus diseases including hemorrhagic fever and AIDS.”

Dr. Shelley Fussey, vice president of intellectual property at Peregrine, added, “We believe this is a significant patent in the anti-viral field and we are especially pleased at the scope of the issued claims, which reflect the broad anti-viral potential of our phospholipid-targeting antibody platform. This patent further extends the breadth of our intellectual property for our anti-PS technology platform, while nicely complementing the intellectual property estate we have developed for our lead clinical stage anti-PS antibody bavituximab, which binds to PS through a different mechanism.”

Today’s news follows the publication of a study in Nature Medicine that supports the broad anti-viral potential of the company’s anti-phospholipid platform. The study showed that phospholipid-targeting drugs can cure lethal virus infections in animal disease models. The publication is the latest in a series of external validations of the company’s anti-viral program.

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