In brief: Ventracor granted patents; Pentrys trial completes recruiting

The US Patent and Trademark Office has granted Ventracor (ASX:VCR) and the company's research partners at the University of Technology Sydney a patent over the control system used in its VentrAssist heart device.

US patent number 6,866, 625 covers the electronic controls by which VentrAssist monitors blood flow and adapts the output of the impeller accordingly.

In April, Ventracor is due to be granted a new European patent, number 1019116, relating to the mechanical aspects of VentrAssist.

Ventracor has 20 patent families which encompass over a hundred granted international patents relating to the suspended dynamic impeller in the company's VentrAssist device. The company also has over 30 patents pending global jurisdictions, primarily Europe and the US.

Recruiting for Phase IIb Pentrys trial complete

Sydney oncology company AustCancer (ASX:ACU, OTCBB:ACUJY) announced today it has completed recruiting for its Phase IIb clinical trial of its Pentrys peptide vaccine in 40 male patients with hormone-refractory prostate cancer.

The multi-centre trial is being conducted by Cancer Trials Australia at Melbourne's Austin Health, Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. It is designed to confirm the vaccine's safety and clinical efficacy.

The new vaccine is designed to elicit an antibody reaction to mutant peptides of the tumour-suppressor protein P53, which is abnormally displayed on the surface of tumour cells in about 50 per cent of all cancers.