Benzinga | Oct 13, 2021 01:38PM EDT

Progenity Announces Multiple Patents Granted By USPTO

Progenity, Inc. (NASDAQ:PROG), an innovative biotechnology company, announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued four patents related to its ingestible technologies for delivery of therapeutics via the gastrointestinal (GI) tract.



The USPTO has issued U.S. Patent No. 11,007,356 entitled, "Ingestible device for delivery of therapeutic agent to the gastrointestinal tract." The patent is directed to methods and devices for delivery of a therapeutic agent into gastrointestinal tissue for systemic uptake. Progenity's Oral Biotherapeutic Delivery System (OBDS), currently under development, is designed for systemic, needle-free delivery of biotherapeutics via an ingestible device. Preclinical work to date has demonstrated the ability of the OBDS to achieve bioavailability of up to 44% for proteins.

The USPTO has also issued U.S. Patent No. 11,033,490 for treatment of inflammatory conditions of the gastrointestinal tract with a Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor. The patent covers methods of treating ulcerative colitis using an ingestible device that delivers a JAK inhibitor directly to the proximal part of the large intestine. As part of its GI-targeted therapeutics program, Progenity is preparing to initiate early clinical studies of its PGN-600 program for targeted delivery of a proprietary formulation of tofacitinib, a JAK inhibitor, to the site of disease using Progenity's Drug Delivery System (DDS), also under development. Earlier this year the company completed preclinical work with PGN-600 demonstrating at least 25 times more tofacitinib in colon tissue and less drug in blood compared to an equivalent standard oral dose.

In addition, the USPTO has issued U.S. Patent No. 11,134,889 entitled, "Treatment of a disease of the gastrointestinal tract with a SMAD7 inhibitor," and U.S. Patent No. 10,980,739 entitled, "Treatment of a disease of the gastrointestinal tract with a chemokine/chemokine receptor inhibitor." These patents are part of the company's GI-targeted therapeutics portfolio, which includes more than 170 issued patents and pending applications directed to seventeen inflammatory bowel disease targets, including TNF-alpha, IL-12/23, and integrins.

"We believe we hold one of the most robust ingestible device patent portfolios," said Eric d'Esparbes, interim CEO of Progenity. "The addition of these recent patents further strengthens our intellectual property position and underscores our commitment to innovation in advancing therapeutic discovery, development, and delivery."

The Progenity patent portfolio consists of 96 patent families, including 180 issued patents and more than 220 pending applications. The portfolio includes patents and applications directed to methods and devices for drug delivery, methods and devices for GI sampling and diagnostics, methods and compositions for treating disease, and molecular and protein tools, assays and diagnostics.