PATENTS
Patents and other proprietary rights are essential to our business. We believe that our patent portfolio is the most comprehensive of any company in the non-viral DNA delivery sector. In addition to our protected technologies, we also rely upon trade secrets, know-how, continuing technological innovations and licensing opportunities to develop and maintain our competitive position.
We and our exclusive licensors have received U.S. and foreign patents covering various aspects of our proprietary technology including:
- Core DNA Delivery Technology. We own rights to issued patents covering our core DNA delivery technology, including patents on methods of administering DNA sequences for the purposes of expressing therapeutic proteins or for inducing immune responses. Other issued patents specifically cover the administration of DNA sequences into blood vessels and the heart.
- Core Lipid Technology. We have received issued patents covering numerous examples of cationic lipid compounds that are used to facilitate delivery of gene therapies to some tissues. These patented compounds include the lipids contained in some of our product candidates.
- Specific DNA Therapeutics. We have supplemented the broad patent coverage described above with patents covering specific product applications of our technology. To date, we have received patents issued in the United States covering our lead product candidates and other patents related to gene delivery to the heart, including delivery of a vascular endothelial growth factor, or VEGF.
- DNA Process Technology. As a result of our pioneering efforts to develop the use of pure DNA as a therapeutic agent, we have also developed manufacturing processes for producing pharmaceutical-grade DNA. We have received issued patents covering various steps involved in the process of economically producing pure plasmids for pharmaceutical use.