Milo Biotechnology Announces Patent Issuance

CLEVELAND and COLUMBUS, Ohio, Dec. 3, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Milo Biotechnology, which is applying its follistatin gene therapy in three clinical programs, today announced the issuance of its parent patent "Myostatin Inhibition for Enhancing Muscle and/or Improving Muscle Function", which has issued as patent number 8,895,309.

The patent is assigned to Nationwide Children's Hospital, where the therapy was developed, and is exclusively licensed to Milo Biotechnology.   The newly issued patent, which expires in November 2029, covers the company's three clinical stage programs in Becker muscular dystrophy, inclusion body myositis and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.  A December 2014 publication in the journal Molecular Therapy will describe clinical results, demonstrating initial safety and efficacy, in 6 Becker muscular dystrophy patients.

"This patent issuance validates the novelty of the therapeutic approach developed at Nationwide Children's Hospital.  The inventors, Drs. Kaspar and Mendell, executed a therapy development strategy that has translated into clinical significance and meaningful intellectual property." said Milo CEO Al Hawkins.

Brian Kaspar, Ph.D., Associate Professor at Nationwide Children's Hospital and Grant Morrow III MD Endowed Chair in Pediatric Research and compensated advisor and scientific founder of Milo said, "We are thrilled with the success of this gene therapeutic to treat various muscle disorders with a remarkable safety profile and impressive response on improving muscle health and function to date.  We are excited for continued development of this therapy in the hopes that we can achieve meaningful advances for patients suffering from these diseases."

In addition to the U.S. issued patent, the parent patent application is pending in multiple other territories and follow-on applications have been filed by Nationwide Children's Hospital.

About Milo Biotechnology
Milo Biotechnology is a clinical stage startup company developing therapies to strengthen muscle and improve the lives of patients with neuromuscular diseases.  Its lead program, AAV1-FS344, leads to the local expression of follistatin, a potent TGFβ ligand inhibitor.  Milo's core technology was developed at and is exclusively licensed from Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio; the company is based in Cleveland, Ohio, and has received funding from JumpStart Inc., the Cuyahoga County North Coast Opportunities Fund and from NIAMS Rare Disease SBIR program. Visit www.milobiotechnology.com for more information.

About Nationwide Children's Hospital
Ranked 7th of only 10 children's hospitals on U.S. News & World Report's 2014-15 "America's Best Children's Hospitals Honor Roll" and among the Top 10 on Parents magazine's 2013 "Best Children's Hospitals" list, Nationwide Children's Hospital is one of the nation's largest not-for-profit freestanding pediatric healthcare networks providing care for infants, children and adolescents as well as adult patients with congenital disease. As home to the Department of Pediatrics of The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Nationwide Children's faculty train the next generation of pediatricians, scientists and pediatric specialists. The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital is one of the Top 10 National Institutes of Health-funded free-standing pediatric research facilities in the U.S., supporting basic, clinical, translational and health services research at Nationwide Children's. The Research Institute encompasses three research facilities totaling 525,000 square feet dedicated to research. More information is available at NationwideChildrens.org/Research.

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SOURCE Milo Biotechnology