Neuren Pharmaceuticals receives Notice of Allowance of new US patent

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THE ROADHOUSE PHARMACY: Neuren Pharmaceuticals (ASX: NEU) has been issued a Notice of Allowance by the US Patent and Trademark Office for a new patent covering the company’s second drug candidate, NNZ-2591, titled “Cyclic Glycyl-2-Allyl Proline improves cognitive performance in impaired animals”.

The patent is expected to expire in 2031 and is the fourth US patent to be issued covering NNZ-2591, with expected expiries between 2027 and 2031.

Neuren is currently testing NNZ-2591 in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis, with results expected in the second half of 2014.

NNZ-2591 has already shown efficacy in pre-clinical models of Parkinson’s disease, stroke, traumatic brain injury, peripheral neuropathy, Fragile X Syndrome and memory impairment.

The first claim of the new patent describes “A method for relieving or alleviating a symptom of cognitive impairment caused by a disease, injury, or condition in a mammal in need thereof, comprising: administering a pharmaceutically effective amount of cyclic Glycyl-2-Allyl Proline (cG-2-AllylP) to said mammal thereby providing relief from the symptom, where said disease is selected from the group consisting of Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Lewy Body disease, Dementia, cerebral atrophy, frontotemporal lobar degeneration, Pick’s disease, multi-infarct dementia, HIV infection, and Down’s syndrome, said injury is selected from the group consisting of neurotoxic injury, cerebral hypoxia/ischemia, traumatic brain injury, coronary artery bypass surgery, where said condition is normal aging, age-related memory loss, memory impairment, cholinergic hypofunction, vascular narrowing or blockage in the brain, neuroinflammation, mild cognitive impairment, and loss of synaptic plasticity.”

Neuren Pharmaceuticals explained NNZ-2591 is a synthetic analogue of a naturally occurring neuropeptide, which has been shown to have neuroprotective and nootropic (memory enhancing) effects in multiple animal models.

NNZ-2591 has excellent oral bioavailability and is currently being assessed as a clinical candidate for the treatment of chronic neurological disorders.

NNZ-2591 is protected by both composition of matter and therapeutic use patents, as well as a number of pending applications.