Acusphere issued US patent

Acusphere, Inc. announced today the issuance of U.S. Patent No. 7,160,557 B2, entitled "Matrices Formed of Polymer and Hydrophobic Compounds for Use in Drug Delivery."

The patent covers the sustained drug release features of Acusphere's porous microparticle formulations using a biodegradable shell material. These porous microparticle formulations have tightly controlled size distributions, and can allow drugs to be released over periods of time ranging from days to weeks by intravenous, inhalation, subcutaneous, or oral routes of administration. The technology is applicable to both water soluble and water insoluble drugs.

"Controlled-release of drug delivery represents an intriguing potential application for our technology and this new patent expands Acusphere's intellectual property protection in this important area," commented Sherri C. Oberg, President and CEO of Acusphere. "There are many drugs currently on the market and many more in development that do not have ideal delivery characteristics and could potentially benefit from controlled release reformulation. We are actively investigating ways to couple our technology with such drugs as we look to expand our product pipeline."