Auxogyn Announces Issuance of Key Patent Covering Predictive Embryo Assessment Parameters for In Vitro Fertilization

MENLO PARK, Calif., June 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Auxogyn, Inc., a privately held medical technology company focused on women's reproductive health, today announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued patent number 7,963,906 covering three predictive parameters for the assessment of embryo viability during in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures used in Auxogyn's early embryo viability assessment (Eeva™) System.

"This patent is the first to issue from a portfolio of patents filed related to our Eeva System in the United States, Europe and other countries," said Lissa Goldenstein, president and chief executive officer of Auxogyn. "We believe the value of our technology lies in the unique ability of our proprietary parameters to evaluate and predict, by day 2, the embryos that will continue development to blastocyst stage, which happens on day 5 of human development. By providing novel clinical data to IVF clinicians early, this non-invasive clinical tool has the potential to improve clinical pregnancy rates for IVF patients."

The Eeva System uses proprietary software to measure the three predictive parameters from time lapse video images of the embryos developing in a standard incubator and identify  on day 2 which embryos are most likely to continue development into blastocysts (day 5). Blastocyst formation is a critical milestone in human embryo development and provides objective criteria for selecting which embryo(s) to transfer. Use of the Eeva System is investigational, and the Eeva System has not been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for commercial sale.

Auxogyn's proprietary non-invasive Eeva System is based on research of early human embryo development conducted at Stanford University and published in the October 2010 issue of Nature Biotechnology. The U.S. patent 7,963,906 was issued to Stanford University. Auxogyn has an exclusive license from Stanford University with worldwide rights to develop products based on intellectual property that includes this patent.

About Auxogyn

Auxogyn is a privately held medical technology company focused on advancing women's reproductive health by applying its novel scientific and clinical knowledge of early human developmental biology to the field of assisted reproduction and in vitro fertilization procedures. Auxogyn is funded by the leading life science venture firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, TPG Biotechnology and Merck Serono Ventures. For more information regarding Auxogyn please visit www.auxogyn.com.

SOURCE Auxogyn, Inc.