Norwood Abbey patent success

Australian technology enabling the collection of intracellular fluid for analyte measurement without the use of a needle has gained a United States patent.

Norwood Abbey's (ASX: NAL) laser probe patent is part of the portfolio acquired by the Melbourne company when it bought Transmedica International in 2000.

The patent, which the company says strengthens the strategic value of its intellectual property, relates to the use of a laser to perforate the skin and allow the collection and analysis of interstitial fluid.

Measurements obtained in the fluid - which is found in the spaces between tissue cells - could then be used to approximate analyte concentrations in other bodily fluids, such as blood.

The approval comes two weeks after Norwood gained patents for other laser technologies coming out of Transmedica and its other purchase of that time, Spectral Biosystems.

Those patents were for the use of laser technology for internal drug delivery, an area that the company, which is focused on external drug delivery, did not yet wish to develop.