Virdante Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted a key patent that supports the Company's "Sialic Switch" technology for improving the anti-inflammatory activity of antibody-based drugs to treat autoimmune and inflammatory disorders. Virdante's Sialic Switch technology is based on the principle of activating a novel anti-inflammatory pathway by specifically sialylating Fc-linked glycans of IgG antibodies.
“This patent provides important validation for our proprietary Sialic Switch technology, and provides an additional level of protection for the novel antibody-based drug development programs ongoing at Virdante”
US Patent 7,846,744, titled, "Methods of Identifying Anti-Inflammatory Compounds," covers the use of human receptor DC-SIGN (or mouse SIGN-R1) to screen for drugs that either suppress or activate anti-inflammatory activity. Jeffrey Ravetch, M.D., Ph.D., of The Rockefeller University and Virdante's scientific founder, previously discovered that DC-SIGN binds a sialylated Fc fragment of IgG antibodies that is required for the anti-inflammatory activity of plasma-derived intravenous immune globulin ("IVIG"). This binding interaction is thought to initiate a pathway in which sialylated IgG promotes an anti-inflammatory state.
"This patent provides important validation for our proprietary Sialic Switch technology, and provides an additional level of protection for the novel antibody-based drug development programs ongoing at Virdante," said John Ripple, Chief Executive Officer of Virdante. "We are focused on continuing to advance our lead sIVIG development candidate toward clinical trials as the first step in achieving human proof of concept for the broad applications of our Sialic Switch technology."
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