BioDiem receives key US patent

Newly listed biotechnology company BioDiem (ASX: BDM) has received a Notice of Allowance from the US Patent Office for a key patent covering its synthetic peptide for retinal eye disease, BDM-E. The patent will automatically be granted after a period of public exposure.

CEO Tom Williams said that the granting of the patent was an important milestone for the company, and would ensure that the rights to the peptide would be protected in the large US market until 2019.

The peptide is being developed as a treatment for retinal eye diseases including diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration -- the leading two causes of blindness in the developed world.

"We have highly promising early results from human studies conducted in St Petersburg that suggest [the peptide] may be useful for these conditions," Williams said.

While the mechanism of action of the peptide is still under investigation by the company and its collaborators at the University of Sydney's Save Sight Institute, Williams said it demonstrated strong antioxidant abilities and was able to stimulate the proliferation of retinal cells in culture.

The company is working with the Save Sight Institute to perform pre-clinical testing using models of diabetic retinopathy, and hopes to take the peptide into human clinical studies in due course, said the director of R&D Prof Robert Borland.

The project is one of four that have been licensed by BioDiem from the St Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology and other Russian research institutions.

"It's certainly a large unmet need we think is unmet medically, and it has a large commercial market," Williams said.