(Lexington, MA) announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office recently issued several patents that expand the coverage of the company's lead compound rifalazil. United States Patent 6,316,433; 6,566,354 and 6,362,169 cover certain dosage regimens and formulations that are believed to be of great clinical importance in treating bacterial infections.
ActivBiotics exclusively licensed rifalazil from Kaneka Corporation (Japan).
We hope to carry rifalazil through the remaining clinical trials for registration within two years, which should enable the drug to be available on the formulary very soon thereafter.
Bernard Cabana, ActivBiotics' VP of Preclinical and Clinical Pharmacology and former founder and Director of the FDA's Division of Biopharmaceutics, stated, "The pharmacokinetic and tissue distribution of rifalazil is best described by a two-compartment open-model.
Chalom Sayada, M.D., Ph.D., ActivBiotics' CEO stated, "These patents reflect our new understanding of the unique potency, distribution, and pharmacokinetic properties of our lead compound, and should allow us to develop rifalazil for a broad number of indications in the near future.