Meditrina Gets Patent For New Treatment of Endometriosis
Ann Arbor-based Meditrina Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Thursday that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued a notice of allowance of patent for its novel treatment mechanism for endometriosis in women.
Meditrina has licensed the technology to pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.
The patent covers "Composition Comprising a Combination of an Aromatase Inhibitor, a Progestin, and an Oestrogen and its Use for the Treatment of Endometriosis." The patent claims are directed to the use of anastrozole in combination with an estrogen and a progestin and protect Meditrina's endometriosis product MPI-676.
"The allowance of this patent to our licensor AstraZeneca is a significant step forward in the protection of our approach to treating endometriosis with our proprietary endometriosis product, MPI-676," said Thomas A. Collet, president and CEO. "This patent also extends protection for MPI-676 in the world's largest pharmaceutical market in addition to Europe, Australia, China, Indonesia and South Africa, where patents have issued already."
Endometriosis is a serious medical condition where endometrial stroma and glands that are normally present in the uterine cavity are found in other parts of the body. Endometriosis lesions can be found anywhere in the pelvic cavity. The most common symptom of endometriosis is pelvic pain, which often correlates to the menstrual cycle, but a woman with endometriosis may also experience pain that doesn't correlate to her cycle. For many women, the pain of endometriosis is so severe and debilitating that it significantly impacts their daily lives.
It is estimated that 7 to 10 percent of all women are affected by endometriosis, including 70 to 87 percent of women with chronic pelvic pain and 30 to 40 percent of all infertile women. Chronic pelvic pain, dysmenorrhea (painful periods) and dyspareunia (painful intercourse) are common symptoms of endometriosis. There are several medical treatment options, including danazol, GnRH agonists and progestins, each of which have limitations associated with patient response, tolerability, side-effect profile and duration of treatment.
MPI-676 is based on anastrozole, an aromatase inhibitor with well-established, multi-year chronic safety and tolerability data. AIs are a class of drugs that reduce the amount of estrogen circulating in the body by binding to and inhibiting the enzyme aromatase, which is responsible for converting certain hormones to estrogen. In endometriosis, AIs act primarily by inhibiting local estradiol production inside the endometrial lesions.
AIs are currently used for the chronic treatment of estrogen-dependent tumors in postmenopausal women and are being investigated in a variety of women's health conditions. Meditrina holds the exclusive worldwide rights to AstraZeneca's patents and patent applications covering the use of AIs in gynecologic indications.
Meditrina is a clinical-stage, specialty pharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing innovative therapies that treat women's reproductive system disorders, with an initial focus on gynecologic and aromatase-mediated conditions with serious unmet medical needs.
More at www.meditrina.com.
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