BerGenBio Granted Platform Patent - CellSelect™ Platform Also Described in Peer-Reviewed Journal

BERGEN, Norway, September 8, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

BerGenBio AS ("BerGenBio" or the "Company"), an oncology biopharmaceutical company, today announces that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued United States Patent 8,735,064 covering a method for creating and identifying functional interference RNA (RNAi) molecules (1). RNAis are recombinant nucleic acid molecules that have the ability to specifically down-regulate an expressed target gene in vivo.

This patent protects BerGenBio's CellSelect™ platform technology from which the Company has built up its internal pipeline of novel cancer targets and therapeutics. The unique features of the platform significantly de-risk the Company's early drug discovery programs. CellSelect™ uses RNAi to identify novel targets by regulating the gene expression of all the potential drug targets in phenotypic screens. Hits are then thoroughly validated within the CellSelect™ suite of technologies. The CellSelect™ RNAi technology allows BerGenBio to apply a unique approach in guarding against off-target effects in drug development and offers early information on a gene-dose response, which directly mimics pharmaceutical intervention.

Richard Godfrey, CEO of BerGenBio, commented: "This patent is a cornerstone in the protection of our novel technology platform, which is the discovery engine of BerGenBio's pipeline. We continue to use CellSelect™ to identify and validate new drug targets for our own pipeline and in partnership with others. CellSelect™ was instrumental in elucidating the role of Axl kinase in promoting cancer invasion and drug resistance. Axl kinase is the target of BGB324 - the Company's lead program currently in clinical development. The interest in novel drug targets from the pharmaceutical industry has ebbed and flowed over time, but remains essential to better address unmet or poorly met medical needs. Using CellSelect™ we have discovered novel targets with previously unappreciated roles in disease progression."

In addition to the patent grant, BerGenBio announces the publication of a scientific article in BMC Biotechnology (2). The paper presents the underlying technology behind the Company's CellSelect™ platform describing a method of empirically selecting RNAi triggers that attenuate gene expression for the analysis of potential drug targets.

(1) U.S. Patent 8,735,064 

US Patent 8,735,064 describes "Methods for creating and identifying functional RNA interference elements" invented by David Micklem and James Lorens from the University of Bergen and assigned to BerGenBio. The invention relates to the control of gene expression.

(2) BMC Biotechnology Paper  

The paper "Flow cytometry-based functional selection of RNA interference triggers for efficient epi-allelic analysis of therapeutic targets" is written by David R Micklem, Magnus Blø, Petra Bergström, Erlend Hodneland, Crina Tiron, Torill Høiby, Christine Gjerdrum, Ola Hammarsten and James B Lorens, of the Department of Biomedicine, University of Bergen, Norway, BerGenBio A/S, and the Department of Clinical Chemistry and Transfusion Medicine, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Sweden.  BMC Biotechnology 2014, 14:57, doi:10.1186/1472-6750-14-57

About BerGenBio AS 

BerGenBio AS is a biopharmaceutical company located in Bergen, Norway. The company is committed to developing novel therapeutics that inhibit the epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) pathway, preventing the formation of cancer stem cells and disrupting the important mechanisms of acquired cancer drug resistance. The company is founded on proprietary platform technology called CellSelect™ which uses information from RNAi screening studies to identify and validate novel drug targets and biomarkers. BGB324 is the first compound in BerGenBio's pipeline to enter clinical trials, with additional compounds and drug targets at different stages of preclinical development.

SOURCE BerGenBio AS