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LONDON (Alliance News) - ValiRx PLC Thursday said a cancer screening test gene biomarker called NAV3, acquired by its subsidiary in 2012, has received patent approval from the European Patent Office.
In a statement, ValiRx said the latest approval means it has biomarker patent protection in Europe and Australia, and pending in the US and other territories, alongside granted and pending patents for its therapeutic technologies across Europe, the US, Canada and Australia.
The use of biomarkers with oncology therapeutics is one of the fastest growing areas of cancer research, as not only can the biomarkers identify patients who are more likely to respond to a particular drug therapy, but they can also indicate tumour progression.
ValiRx said NAV3 can be used to detect pre-malignant cells, at the stage where tumour development is only about to start; form a highly sensitive and specific test for finding cancer cells in tissue or samples; enable the tracking of only a few malignant cells; and examine various samples and biopsy types.
"The granting of this latest patent by the EPO continues to underpin our global geographic patent coverage and I believe, further vindicates our establishment of ValiFinn and its Finnish biomarkers business, in what is a very exciting and rapidly growing marketplace," Satu Vainikka, chief executive, said in a statement.
Detecting malignant cells as early as possible is a key challenge in cancer diagnostics as as early detection can often have a significant impact on the future survival of cancer patients. Current diagnostic methods for cancer rely mainly on the microscopic analysis of cells in biopsies.
"However, at the early stage of cancer and before morphological changes have developed, such malignant cell detection is and remains difficult," says ValiRx.
ValiRx shares were Thursday quoted at 0.317 pence, down 0.003 pence, or 0.9%.
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
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