Proteome Regulatory News (PRM)

30 Jul 2007 07:00

PROTEOME SCIENCES plc PRESS RELEASE Allowance of US Patent on Isobaric Tandem Mass Tags‚® (TMT‚®) Allowance of European Patent (TMT2)

30 July 2007. Proteome Sciences plc ("Proteome Sciences") is pleased to announce that the USPTO has issued a Notice of Allowance for its US patent application in isobaric mass labelling for its tandem mass tags (TMT‚®) entitled "Mass Labels" Serial No. 10/221,666 (TMT1). The Notice of Allowance completes the final stage of patent examination and represents the form in which the patent will be granted. This follows grants of the corresponding cases in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and most recently in Europe. The US Patent contains broad claims to sets of isobaric mass tags.

The TMT1 Notice of Allowance in the US is a significant milestone for Proteome Sciences because it confers valuable intellectual property around isobaric mass tagging in another major market and enables the Company to approach entities using isobaric mass labels in the US and to alert them that they can obtain licences from Proteome Sciences for the manufacture or use of any type of isobaric mass tags in their research programmes. These licences will allow revenue to be generated from any applications in the field of isobaric mass tagging.

Proteome Sciences has also received a Rule 51(4) - Notice of Intention to Grant for its patent application entitled "Mass Labels", Serial No. 02767650.1 (TMT2) from the European Patent Office that was published on 21st May, 2007. The TMT2 European Patent claims isobaric mass tags with peptide structures and various methods of their use.

Commenting on the US Notice of Allowance, Christopher Pearce, CEO of Proteome Sciences said:

"The allowances of the TMT1 patents in the US and Europe have provided Proteome Sciences broad claims across the field of isobaric tandem mass tagging with the ability to now exploit TMT‚® in these substantial markets, both as a product, in its own right and for third party licences for the manufacture or use of any type of isobaric tandem mass tags.

The market and applications for isobaric mass tagging in quantitative mass spectrometry continues to grow at a rapid pace and we are delighted to have achieved such broad patent coverage in the major economies. The latest patent grants should now enable us to complete commercialisation of TMT‚® through outlicensing and to generate strong revenue through licence income, product sales and royalties."

Ends Notes to editors:

Proteome Sciences plc applies high sensitivity proteomics to identify and characterise differential protein expression in diseases for diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic applications. It has discovered blood biomarkers principally for stroke, vCJD, BSE, brain damage, solid organ transplant rejection and Alzheimer's disease. The main focus of its research currently addresses neurological, neurodegenerative, oncology and cardiovascular conditions.

In addition to its own proprietary biomarkers, Proteome Sciences has developed ProteoSHOP‚® (Proteome Sciences High Output Proteomics), a toolbox that offers high sensitivity and high throughput gel and gel-free proprietary technologies for the identification and validation of potential biomarkers and drug targets, including specialisation in membrane proteins and protein phosphorylation.

The Company has developed a range of specialist reagents to improve the performance and quantitation of protein separation and characterisation with mass spectrometry, bioinformatics, statistics and pattern recognition. These include Sensitizer‚®, PST‚®, qPST¢â€ž¢ and TMT‚®. Proteome Sciences has patent allowances in the major global jurisdictions for isobaric tandem mass tags (TMT ‚®) for the manufacture and use of any type of isobaric mass tags.

Commercialisation is actively pursued across the portfolio of the Company's programmes and technologies with licensing deals signed in biomarkers for Stroke and TSEs and for ProteoSHOP‚®.

Proteome Sciences has its headquarters in Cobham, Surrey in the UK and has laboratories at Kings College Hospital, London and Frankfurt Innovations Zentrum (FIZ), Frankfurt. It employs 32 full time scientists in addition to its corporate and business development staff, and has collaborative research agreements with leading academic institutes. The Company is listed on the Alternative Investment Market.

For further information please visit www.proteomics.com .

Proteome Sciences plc

Dr. Ian Pike, Business Development Director

Email: ian.pike@proteomics.com

Christopher Pearce, Chief Executive Officer

Email: christopher.pearce@proteomics.com

Tel: +44 (0)1932 865065

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