Patent Profile: U.S. Patent No. 7,125,706 to Introgen Therapeutics, Inc. for Purified Adenoviral Compositions

    By Christopher P. Singer --

In a November 22, 2006 press release, Introgen Therapeutics, Inc. (INGN) announced that it has been awarded U.S. Patent No. 7,125,706, titled "An Improved Method for the Production and Purification of Adenoviral Vectors."  This patent represents the third issued U.S. patent in Introgen's adenoviral vector intellectual property portfolio.  Adenoviral vectors can be used to carry transgenes that encode therapeutic proteins.  Currently, some adenoviral based therapies are in clinical trials for treatment of certain cancers, including cancers of the lung, head, and neck.

In its press release, Introgen states that the ‘706 patent relates broadly to adenoviruses of commercial scale, quantity, and purity, regardless of whether the adenovirus is used as a delivery system for therapeutic genes, used directly as a therapeutic agent, used as a vaccine or vaccine component or simply used for research and development purposes.

The ‘706 patent claims priority through a series of divisional and continuation-in-part applications back to November 20, 1996 (U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/031,329).  The independent claims of the ‘706 patent recite:

1. A recombinant adenovirus composition comprising between 5x10¹⁴ and 1x10¹⁸ viral particles and having less than 50 ng of BSA per 1x10¹² viral particles.
2. A purified recombinant adenovirus composition comprising between 5x10¹⁴ and 1x10¹⁸ adenoviral particles and between about 100 pg and 10 ng of contaminating human DNA per 1x10¹² viral particles.

Introgen’s corporate profile can be found at this link.  More information on Introgen Therapeutics can be found at the company’s website: http://www.introgen.com.