Seordus recieves Japanese patent for SER100

The Norwegian cardiovascular biopharmaceutical company Seordus AS today announced that the Japanese Patent Office has granted a patent for Japan covering Serodus' proprietary product SER100, an ORL-1 receptor agonist, which Serodus intends to develop for patients with isolated systolic hypertension.

The patent covers a wide range of peptides, including SER100, pharmaceutical compositions containing SER100, as well as methods of treating different aspects of cardiovascular disorders caused by elevated nociceptin levels.

"The grant of this Japanese patent for SER100 protects a key commercial asset of the Company, and follows previous grants in Australia, New Zealand, and the USA. In addition, Canada is pending and a decision to grant was recently issued in Europe." said Dr. Eva Steiness, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Serodus. "We look forward to the development of SER100 and moving the compound directly into clinical Phase II development.The primary goal will be to demonstrate that the compound reduces elevated systolic blood pressure with only a minor effect on diastolic pressure under co-treatment with a thiazide. The potential market segment for this indication is increasing due to the ageing population."

Serodus acquired the rights to SER100 from Zealand Pharma (ZP120), together with pre-clinical and Phase I documentation in studies in patients with chronic congestive heart failure which demonstrated a favourable safety profile. SER100 has also been studied in patients with acute heart failure and low to normal blood pressure.