Phylogica gets IP boost

The US Patent Office has granted Perth biotech Phylogica's application for a patent on its technology for isolating biological modulators from its burgeoning library of gene fragments from "extremophile" microbes.

The company announced today that the patent has secured the second pillar of its IP suite in the US market. Its IP now covers its phylomer (gene fragment) libraries as well as the concept of using peptide fragments from sequenced microbial genomes to block the activity of protein targets.

CEO Stuart Washer said the patent covered all potential peptide fragments derived from extremophiles - the collective name given to microbes from the phyla Eubacteria and Archaea that colonise some of the world's most extreme environments: the superheated waters of oceanic rift vents, hypersaline lakes, or the hyperacid fluids leaching from sulphide orebodies or mine tailings dumps.

Washer described the company's phylomer libraries as "a Lego box of peptide shapes", potentially capable of blocking any protein target in living organisms - the patent covers all peptide molecules that can be derived from any naturally occurring protein ligand - including yet-to-be-discovered proteins, but it does not extend to entire proteins that have already been patented.

The company syntheses its phylomers de novo, using published gene sequences from 19 different extremophile genome projects. Washer said the extremophiles in some cases are more divergent, in evolutionary terms, than humans and slime moulds.

Since floating in March, Phylogica has been almost the only biotech debutant to keep its bows above water - the company's shares have hovered at or just above around 20c issue price, while most of the Class of 2004-05 have dived almost from day one.

Washer said Phylogica is receiving "more and more interest" from potential clients interested in screening its peptides against their proprietary protein targets.

He attribute the interest to the fact that its phylomers can do virtually everything therapeutic monoclonal antibodies can do - but they do it better, and with greater selectivity.

"Most of our clients have only just heard about us," he said. "A lot of big pharma companies have been fixated on small-molecule drugs and monoclonal antibodies but we can do can do everything they can do as blockers, with major benefits - we can deliver our peptides through the skin, or as aerosols into the respiratory tract, instead of by injection."

Phylogica's scientific director, Dr Paul Watt, said the company was delighted to have secured its IP claims covering the two key components of its technology platform, in one of the toughest jurisdictions in the world, and its largest market.