Nuformix PLC (LON:NFX) said it has received a notice of allowance for a US National Phase Patent Application No 17/051,592 entitled “Crystalline Tranilast Salts And Their Pharmaceutical Use”.
Anne Brindley, chief executive, said the allowance notice means the patent will proceed to be issued and is an “important endorsement” of the company’s discoveries while also strengthening the patent estate for its lead asset, NXP002.
READ: Nuformix making progress on three fronts
NXP002 is the firm’s pre-clinical lead asset and a potential novel inhaled treatment for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) and is a repurposed, new form of the drug tranilast, to be delivered in an inhaled formulation.
“The US is the largest market for IPF (over 60% of the global market) and thus this is a key step forward for the company and this asset", Brindley said in a statement.
The company previously filed two patent applications on new crystalline forms of tranilast, one of which has been granted globally while the second patent application has now been allowed in the US and has also been approved for the "Patent Prosecution Highway" which it said may accelerate examination in other countries.
Nuformix also said that following a fundraising in March it has started additional pre-clinical studies on NXP002 through outsourced expert contract organisations to generate a more robust data package with the goal of increasing the value of the asset to render it more attractive to licensing partners.
Shares in Nuformix rose 0.6% to 2p in early trading on Monday.