RXi receives USPTO notices of allowance for certain siRNA sequence-specific patent applications

RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation (Nasdaq: RXII), a biopharmaceutical company pursuing the development and commercialization of proprietary therapeutics based on RNA interference (RNAi), today announced that Notices of Allowance were recently issued by the United States Patent Office (USPTO) on patent applications filed by Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. and licensed to RXi Pharmaceuticals encompassing small interfering RNA (siRNA) sequences targeting superoxide dismutase (SOD1), Amyloid beta (A4) precursor protein (APP), interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase 4 (IRAK4), hepatocyte growth factor receptor (MET protooncogene) and cyclin-dependent kinase (cdk) inhibitor p27 (also known as MET protooncogene).

These applications, which contain claims that cover specific siRNA sequences, are the first to have received notices of allowance by the USPTO of many patent applications encompassing siRNA sequences licensed by RXi from Thermo Fisher Scientific. These functional siRNA sequences were originally selected utilizing Thermo Fisher Scientific’s proprietary siRNA sequence selection algorithm, which was co-developed by Anastasia Khvorova, Ph.D., RXi’s Chief Scientific Officer, when she was previously at Thermo Fisher Scientific. RXi has obtained broad rights to these sequence-specific patent applications.

Tod Woolf, Ph.D. President and CEO of RXi Pharmaceuticals commented, “We are delighted that the US Patent Office has allowed a number of these siRNA sequence-specific patent applications to issue. These sequence-specific patent applications and the ones we expect to follow add another important component to our robust intellectual property portfolio, encompassing our advanced RNAi therapeutics and further enabling RXi to develop drugs for multiple indications and to build a sustainable pipeline of products for unmet medical needs.”