Two Patents Issued to OMRF

CONTACT: Adam Cohen,  (405) 271-7159, Adam-cohen@omrf.org

OKLAHOMA CITY, March 31, 2008 — The U.S. Patent and Trademark office has issued a pair of patents to the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation.

Patent number 7,335,632 is entitled “Beta-secretase inhibitors and methods of use thereof.” The invention covers novel enzyme inhibitors and their use for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

The invention stems from the work of OMRF’s Jordan Tang, Ph.D., as well as collaborators at the University of Illinois and CoMentis, Inc., who are co-inventors on the patent. The patent is licensed to CoMentis, Inc., a San Francisco-based biotechnology company with research operations in Oklahoma City.

Patent number 7,288,527 also issued to OMRF. That invention, “Inhibition of Allergic Contact Dermatitis by N-L-Alpha-Aspartyl-L-Phenylalanine 1-Methyl Ester,” is based on the research of Carl Manion, M.D.

The patent covers the use of certain compounds to treat allergy-induced skin rashes caused by irritants such as poison ivy, poison oak and poison sumac. HealthAide, an Oklahoma City biotechnology company, has licensed the discovery from OMRF.

With these patents, OMRF now holds a total of 148 U.S. patents. More than 40 of these discoveries are currently licensed to commercial partners that are pursuing development of treatments and diagnostics stemming from those discoveries.

OMRF is an independent, nonprofit biomedical research institute dedicated to understanding and developing more effective treatments for human disease. Chartered in 1946, its scientists focus on such critical research areas as Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, lupus and cardiovascular disease.

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