Progen granted anti-angiogenesis antibody patent.

Progen Industries Limited (Brisbane, Australia) broadened its intellectual property position with the receipt of European Patent 669 988. The patent entitled "Angiogenesis Inhibitory Antibodies" broadly covers antibody approaches to the inhibition of angiogenesis by directly inhibiting endothelial cell growth.

Angiogenesis is a critical step in cancer and is the process by which new blood vessels are formed to establish and grow tumors. Inhibiting angiogenesis can inhibit tumor growth and prolong life for cancer patients. This has recently been confirmed by Genentech's (S. San Francisco, CA) antibody, Avastin that has demonstrated a survival benefit in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer and is the subject of their recent Biologics License Application filing with the United States Food and Drug Administration for its eventual release to the market.

Progen's new patent grant broadens the company's intellectual property coverage in one of the most heavily researched areas - angiogenesis and specifically the area of inhibiting endothelial cell growth. Endothelial cells form the walls of blood vessels and their growth or proliferation, is a key step in the process of providing blood supply to growing tumors. Progen claim in their patent a novel antibody-related approach to preventing endothelial cells forming these new blood vessels to feed tumors thereby inhibiting angiogenesis.

Robert Don PhD, Progen's Vice President for Research and Development commented, "Interest in therapeutic anti-angiogenic antibodies for the development of drugs has grown and was recently validated, so our patent covers a space in what is becoming an important area for drug development. Our lead drug PI-88 emerged from our related angiogenesis research program and Progen's drug discovery team continues to work on expanding our drug portfolio. This most recent patent grant completes coverage gained by patents issued in the United States (US5677181 & US5874081) and Australia (AU673865). It will complement our 6 patent families in the antiangiogenesis field with 26 granted patents and 17 patent applications."

Progen's lead small-molecule drug candidate, PI-88 also targets angiogenesis, in this case via the inhibition of several growth factors necessary for blood vessel growth, such as VEGF, FGF-1 and FGF-2, along with the enzyme heparanase. PI-88 is showing promise in a Phase I solid tumor trial as a single-agent, where one third of cancer patients treated to date have experienced stable disease over periods up to 27 months. All patients in this study have advanced or terminal stage disease where life expectancy is short and where all other effective therapy options are either not available or have failed.

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