Genflow Biosciences Ltd (LSE:GENF, OTCQB:GENFF, FRA:WQ5), the London-listed longevity research company, said the United States Patent and Trademark Office had granted accelerated examination for the foundational patent application covering its centenarian-derived gene variant.
The Track One status speeds up assessment of the application, titled "Variants of SIRT6 for Use in Preventing and/or Treating Age-Related Diseases", though it does not guarantee a grant or determine what claims are eventually allowed.
SIRT6 is a gene associated with DNA repair and ageing, and Genflow is developing a variant found in people who live beyond 100.
The foundational family is jointly owned by the University of Rochester, Columbia University and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and licensed exclusively to Genflow worldwide.
That family is also moving forward elsewhere, with a request for examination filed in Canada.
The corresponding European application has reached the final stage before the European Patent Office, with Genflow awaiting the communication that typically precedes a grant.
Timing still depends on the office completing its formal procedures.
Separately, the US Patent Office has published a second Genflow application covering use of the variant in treating non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, including the more severe form known as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.
The company owns that application outright, and names Manlio Vinciguerra and Eric Leire as inventors.
Publication is a procedural step in examination rather than a grant.
Fatty liver disease has become one of the more actively pursued targets in drug development, with the condition affecting a substantial share of adults in developed economies.
Leire, chief executive, said protecting the centenarian-derived variant remained central to strategy.
He said the foundational family sought broad protection for the variant itself, while the company-owned liver disease family added indication-specific claims.
Together with separate filings covering delivery and muscular disease, he said, the applications formed a layered approach spanning the variant, how it is delivered and what it might treat.
