Silence Therapeutics said this week that the European Patent Office has upheld an amended form of a patent covering protein kinase N beta, which is silenced with the company's phase I cancer drug Atu027.
Silence said the patent covers the use of PKN3 as a downstream target of the PI3 kinase pathway; the use of PKN3 as a downstream drug target of the PI3 kinase pathway in a screening process; the manufacture of a diagnostic agent based on use of PKN3; and the use of molecules such as siRNAs against PKN3 as a therapeutic.
In its amended form, the patent limits to metastatic cancers the diseases for which PKN3 inhibition can be used as a treatment.
"We are very pleased with the outcome of this oral opposition hearing, which has upheld the key part of our claims in this granted patent,” Silence CEO Thomas Christely said in a statement.