January 13, 2012 — Amorcyte Inc.,a NeoStem Inc. company, announced the expansion of intellectual property protection around its lead product candidate, AMR-001, with the grant of U.S. patent number 8,088,370 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Amorcyte's first issued patent (7,794,705) entitled "Compositions and Methods of Vascular Injury Repair," protects a chemotactic stem cell product enriched for CD34+ cells that treats injury from acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The new patent covers the use of AMR-001 in the repair of any vascular injury caused by vascular insufficiency, and effectively expands the breadth of the patented claims beyond the current target indications for AMR-001.
"By carefully defining the mechanism of action of AMR-001 - the homing and integration of CD34+CXCR4+ cells to repair and re-vascularize ischemic tissue - we have positioned Amorcyte to achieve broader indications beyond cardiovascular injury," said Andrew L. Pecora, chief medical officer of NeoStem and founder of Amorcyte.
"We look forward to the start of enrollment of patients in the Phase 2 trial for AMR-001 for treatment of AMI as we seek to meet our 2012 goal of completing enrollment of approximately 160 patients," said Robin L. Smith, chairman and CEO of NeoStem.
For more information: www.amorcyte.com