ReNeuron Holdings plc announces that the
European Patent Office ('
EPO') has granted the Company's patent application on the use of haematopoietic
cells for transplantation into the
brain. The Company believes that this patent is of considerable importance given the increased commercial interest and recent scientific publication (1) on the use of stem and
progenitor cells derived from blood or
bone marrow to treat
neurological diseases.
The patent provides broad protection in the use of this technology to treat a wide variety of
neurological diseases including Parkinson's disease,
Huntington's disease,
stroke and many others.
On 7th May, ReNeuron announced that it had received notices of allowances for two key US
patents relating to its immortalising
genes and gene identification.
Commenting on this latest grant, Dr Martin
Edwards, Chief Executive of ReNeuron said; "ReNeuron is committed to developing stem
cell therapies for the treatment of
brain diseases. As outlined in our 2002 Annual Report issued last week, we are exploring several approaches to achieve this critically important goal. Much of our work uses
stem cells derived directly from the brain but there may be alternative ways to generate cells suitable for transplantation into the brain that do not require working with embryonic or foetal cells as the starting point.
"We believe that cells derived from blood or
bone marrow represent the most attractive alternative approach and ReNeuron is naturally delighted to receive this patent with broad and potentially commercially important claims".
1. See Jiang Y et al, Nature 418, 4th July 2002.