The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has awarded a patent to a PET imaging radiopharmaceutical that can detect both tau and beta-amyloid plaque at the same time, according to news shared Friday.
CereMark Pharma holds an exclusive licensing agreement for the imaging agent Flornaptitril with the University of California Los Angeles. UCLA holds the patent, which comes after phase two clinical trials safely tested the PET tracer in hundreds of patients with traumatic brain injuries or other neurological diseases.
Physicians and researchers are continually searching for better ways to treat patients with such brain disorders and this material was shown to enhance PET scanning of pathological proteins and patterns key to diagnosing conditions such as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) and Alzheimer's disease.
“We are excited that research we are accomplishing with Flornaptitril could represent a significant breakthrough in both diagnosis and charting responses to treatments, and better management for neurodegenerative diseases," Henry M. Chilton, PhD, MBA, CEO of CereMark, said in a statement.
The Lexington, Kentucky-based company said it’s nearing an agreement with the U.S Food and Drug Administration to test Flornaptitril in phase 3 multi-site clinical trials. There is currently no single PET imaging agent approved by the FDA that simultaneously detects tau aggregates and beta-amyloid plaque on one scan, according to CereMark.
Matt joined Chicago’s TriMed team in 2018 covering all areas of health imaging after two years reporting on the hospital field. He holds a bachelor’s in English from UIC, and enjoys a good cup of coffee and an interesting documentary.