By Christopher P. Singer —

In a July 2, 2007 press release, Introgen Therapeutics, Inc. announced that the U.S. Patent Office has issued U.S. Patent No. 7,235,391, entitled "Formulations of Adenovirus for Gene Therapy."  The general technology covered by the patent relates to pharmaceutical formulations containing adenoviruses that have improved shipping and long term storage capacity.  According to Introgen, the company has developed a number of adenoviral formulations that contain combinations of common formulation agents, such as glycerol and non-ionic detergents, which allow for final formulations that can be shipped under standard refrigeration conditions and can be stored over longer periods of time.  Introgen expects that these formulations will be explored for use in its adenoviral vector series of pipeline drugs, particularly ADVEXIN p53 and INGN 241 mda-7.

The ‘391 claims priority as a divisional application to issued U.S. Patent 6,689,600, which in turn claims priority to two U.S. Provisional Patent Applications, one filed on November 16, 1998, and the other on May 7, 1999.  Briefly, the claims of the patent relate to aqueous pharmaceutical compositions comprising adenoviral particles, a polyol, and a non-ionic detergent.  The patent contains twenty total claims, with Claim 1 as the only in independent claim.  Claim 1 recites:

1.  An aqueous pharmaceutical composition comprising adenoviral particles and a polyol in an amount effective to promote the maintenance of adenoviral infectivity, wherein the composition further comprises a non-ionic detergent.

More information regarding this technology, as well as Introgen’s other technology platforms, can be found at Introgen’s website.