Glycotest, a portfolio company of NetScientific PLC (LON:NSCI), has been granted a patent in Japan over a biomarker for early-stage liver cancer.
The patent expands Glycotest's patent portfolio, which stands at 10 previously granted or allowed patents, protecting multiple aspects of Glycotest's proprietary liver disease diagnostic platform, including more than 50 unique glycoprotein biomarkers - measurements of a biological state - and the assay technology required to interpret them.
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These patents have been licenced exclusively on a worldwide basis to Glycotest by Drexel University College of Medicine and the Blumberg Institute of the Hepatitis B Foundation, both located in the Philadelphia area.
NetScientific holds an 87.5% stake in Glycotest, or 67% on a fully diluted basis.
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François Martelet, chief executive of intellectual property commercialisation company NetScientific PLC and chairman of Glycotest, said: "We are very pleased to announce further strengthening of the IP landscape controlled by Glycotest in the field of liver diagnostics and we expect further positive developments for the intellectual property portfolio in the future. We also look forward to further clinical validation of the Glycotest platform in H2 2017."