MiReven Receives United States Patent

Perth, Western Australia (30 April, 2014)  MiReven Pty Ltd (mireven.com.au), an Australian microRNA company commercialising discoveries from the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research on the anti-cancer potential of miR-7, announces today the grant of its first patent by the United States Patent Office.

The granted US patent, ‘Method Of Modulation of Expression of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) Involving miRNA’, covers the work of MiReven’s founding scientists Prof. Peter Leedman and Dr Keith Giles on the anti-cancer potential of micro RNA-7 (miR-7), who along with Dr Rebecca Webster, are named inventors on the patent.

MiReven has worldwide exclusive rights to the patent through its technology licence from the University of Western Australia, as well as to other miR-7-related patent applications at various stages of prosecution in key markets around the world.

miR-7 is part of a recently discovered family of small, regulatory molecules that have the ability to regulate families of genes inside cells.  miR-7 regulates genes involved in cancer and resistance to cancer therapy.  By developing miR-7 as a ‘miR-replacement therapy’, MiReven hopes to provide additional therapeutic options for difficult to treat cancers.

Professor Peter Leedman, Director of the Perkins Institute and co-inventor of the MiReven patents, said, ‘The granting of our first US patent is a milestone in the development of MiReven’s growing intellectual property portfolio.  The patent also validates the Institute’s parallel strategies of high‑profile scientific publication output combined with protection of intellectual property value, without which our discoveries cannot be translated into potentially life-saving developments in cancer therapy.”

MiReven is a private company funded by investments from the Medical Research Commercialisation Fund (MRCF).  Dr Stephen Thompson, MiReven’s Chairman and MRCF representative on the Board of Directors, added, “miR-7 replacement therapy is an exciting new approach in cancer therapeutic development.  MiReven is developing a robust intellectual property portfolio on the anti-cancer potential of miR-7 and we have additional patent families currently being prosecuted which all add significant value to our IP estate.”

The patent can be accessed online at http://www.lens.org/lens/patent/US_8673872_B2

 

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