LONDON, Feb. 23, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Silence Therapeutics plc
(AIM: SLN) (“Silence” or the “Company”) announces the issuance of
United States patent 7,893,245, titled “Interfering RNA Molecules,”
by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The
issued patent, which represents a continuation of previously issued
U.S. Patent Number 7,452,987, covers chemically modified RNAi
molecules with defined positional modifications including siRNA
molecules that are blunt ended, as well as molecules with one or
more overhangs. Importantly, this latest patent broadens
Silence’s protection of these RNAi molecules to those with a
chemically modified core length between 17 and 29 nucleotides
including the company’s portfolio of 25mer siRNA sequences.
This patented siRNA technology forms the foundation for
AtuRNAi, Silence’s propriety RNAi molecules. Various therapeutics
incorporating Silence’s AtuRNAi technology are currently being
studied in five ongoing clinical trials conducted by Silence
Therapeutics and other industry leaders.
“The extended protection for our RNAi technology, particularly
the expanded coverage of our AtuRNAi platform, reinforces the
meaningful advances Silence Therapeutics is making in the field of
RNAi therapeutics. The AtuRNAi technology is actively being
advanced in multiple Phase II clinical studies by Quark and in our
own Phase I trial and to date more than 200 patients have been
dosed with AtuRNAi with no reported safety issues,” stated Philip
Haworth, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Silence Therapeutics.
“The value of the AtuRNAi technology is an essential
component of all of our internal and partnered programs. With
the extended protection for the AtuRNAi technology, which can be
combined with our broadly protected structural modification
technology (the ‘Zamore Design Rules,’), we and our partners are
able to invest in product development more aggressively.”
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