MADISON, WI. January 29, 2013 – Centrose LLC, a company focused on precise drug targeting, announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued Centrose the first Extracellular Drug Conjugate (EDC) related patent (number 8,361,973). The patent and its claims relate to the first class of EDC drugs and their conjugates.
Discovered by Centrose scientists, this invention allows Centrose to manufacture a totally new class of drugs that will be used to treat multiple diseases. Specifically, the patent covers the medicinal chemistry and conjugates of a class of well studied drugs know as steroidal glycosides. Conjugation to targeting molecules precisely guides the steroids to exact locations on diseased cells. The approach reduces toxic side effects and increase drug potency. Now Centrose is able to solely target this class of drugs to disease related protein-protein complexes which are involved in cancer, inflammation, diabetes, and brain disorders such as Parkinsons.
Centrose has been building a portfolio of technologies used to attach drugs to targeting molecules. By targeting small molecule drugs with molecular precision, new uses have been identified. When compared to the steroidal glycoside alone, the EDCs create a lower risk of off-target side-effects and for that reason greatly improve overall safely and efficacy. The EDCs that will come from this new patent employ a class of regulatory drugs of which are now known to be produced in the human body. Antibodies used by
Centrose to target these drugs, are also made endogenously. Centrose discovered this unique synergy only recently but says it has identified multiple combinations that not only can be used as drugs, but also as research tools to discover how cells regulate growth.
“We are astonished at how wide reaching this first in class EDC technology is” stated Dr. James Prudent. “This patent is surely just the beginning of a long list of important EDC discoveries to come”.
About Centrose LLC
Centrose delivers powerful technologies for the enhancement of therapeutics and utilizes these technologies to enhance drugs. Specifically, Centrose is attaching novel sugars and targeting molecules to enhance the pharmaceutical properties of drugs with established therapeutic potential. The Company uses the proprietary EDC Technology and the CarboConnect system to enhance, screen and fine tune drug action. Centrose owns exclusive rights to these drug enhancing technologies and continues to develop and patent new technologies in order to advance medicines.
Contacts:
James Prudent, Ph.D.
President and CEO
Centrose LLC
(608) 836-0207
