Access submits additional patent applications for Cobalamin-mediated oral drug delivery technology

ACCESS PHARMACEUTICALS, INC. (OTC Bulletin Board: ACCP), a biopharmaceutical company leveraging its proprietary drug-delivery platforms to develop treatments in areas of oncology, cancer supportive care and diabetes, announced it has submitted additional patent applications, covering its Cobalamin-mediated oral drug delivery technology formulations of many global top-100 injectable drugs, as a result of the growing interest surrounding the company's proprietary oral delivery technology.  The patents cover oral formulations of leading injectables, like bevacizumab (Avastin®), trastuzumab (Herceptin®), adalimumab (Humira®), etanercept (Enbrel®), insulin glargine (Lantus®), and many others.  In addition, Access rebranded its Cobalamin-mediated oral drug delivery technology as CobOral™ delivery technology.

"The CobOral branding and additional patent filings reflect the high level of interest from partners in our CobOral and CobaCyte drug delivery platforms," stated Jeffrey B. Davis, President and CEO, Access Pharmaceuticals, Inc.  He continued, "As we continue exploiting our CobOral and CobaCyte technology platforms to yield valuable oral formulations of top-selling injectables, we believe filing these additional patents is critical in maintaining our strong IP position when further executing on our collaboration and partnering strategy."

Access continues to make significant progress with its proprietary CobOral delivery technology. Access recently signed a pre-licensing agreement with a leading biotechnology company to develop an oral formulation of its currently-marketed, proprietary injectable drug for diabetes.  Access initially focused its CobOral product development program on the oral delivery of insulin and human growth hormone (hGH), two peptides which currently can only be given by injection. Since presenting promising results at a major conference in mid-2008, Access has made substantial improvements to the formulation technology. An improved CobOral insulin-containing nanoparticle formulation delivered orally provided a pharmacological response (lowering of blood glucose levels in an animal model of diabetes) equivalent to greater than 80% of that achieved by insulin delivered subcutaneously. This represents a substantial oral bioavailability, indicating that this formulation has potential for clinical development and ultimate commercialization. Adaptation of this technology has provided a CobOral HGH formulation that has demonstrated good efficacy, represented by more than 25% improvement in weight gain, when given orally in an established animal model.