Benzinga | Nov 24, 2020 07:34AM EST

iBio Announces Issuance Of US Patent Covering Endostatin Peptides For Treating Fibrosis

BRYAN, Texas, Nov. 24, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- iBio, Inc. (NYSEA:IBIO) ("iBio" or the "Company"), a biotech innovator and biologics contract manufacturing organization, today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued U.S. Patent No. 10,844,392, entitled "Materials and Methods for Producing Endostatin Fusion Polypeptides in Plant Cells," which, amongst other claims, covers a novel expression cassette that enhances the yield of endostatin fragments and variants using iBio's FastPharming(r) System.



The claims in the patent are foundational to iBio's work on its antifibrotic therapies given that the technologies enhance the expression and quality of endostatin-derived E4 antifibrotic peptides fused to human IgG1 when produced in plants. The Company is developing such a molecule as "IBIO-100" for the treatment of fibrotic disorders, including systemic scleroderma and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The '392 Patent contains 19 claims and expires in June 2036.

"This patent, and the technologies it covers, advances our work on therapeutic candidates for treating fibrotic disorders by increasing the number of antifibrotic peptide variants that we may select for clinical development," said Tom Isett, Chairman & CEO of iBio. "iBio can also apply certain claims to other IgG-based molecules manufactured using our FastPharming System, thereby creating the opportunity to secure additional intellectual property based upon composition of matter."

iBio plans to conduct IND-enabling studies on IBIO-100 in 2021.