Celator(R) Pharmaceuticals Receives Notice of Allowance on U.S. Patent for CombiPlex(R) Technology Platform

PRINCETON, N.J., April 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Celator Pharmaceuticals today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued a Notice of Allowance for a patent covering the company's CombiPlex® technology platform (U.S. patent application 10/417,631), the basis for the company's product pipeline which includes two clinical-stage products for acute myeloid leukemia and colorectal cancer.

CombiPlex is a unique approach in the development of combination drug therapies used for treating cancer.  It is the only approach using drug carriers to deliver synergistic ratios of cancer drug combinations.  In contrast to conventional combination chemotherapies, Celator recognized that different ratios of the same two (or more) drugs can be synergistic, additive and even antagonistic.  CombiPlex identifies a synergistic ratio of the drugs and locks this ratio in nano-scale (about 100 times smaller than a red blood cell) carriers that are able to deliver and maintain the synergistic drug ratio after injection in patients. This extended delivery of a synergistic ratio of drugs is intended to increase the effectiveness of the combination and improve clinical outcomes.  

"This broad allowance protects our ability to utilize the CombiPlex platform with a wide variety of antineoplastic agents, opening up numerous potential combinations for investigation and possible commercialization," said Dr. Lawrence Mayer, president and head or research at Celator Pharmaceuticals.  

Celator received similar patent protection for CombiPlex from the European Patent Office in 2006.  The U.S. patent will extend until at least 2024.

"Extending patent protection of CombiPlex to the US strengthens our intellectual property portfolio as we advance our pipeline of cancer therapies and collaborative programs with other pharmaceutical companies," said Scott Jackson, chief executive officer of Celator Pharmaceuticals.  "The technology has already yielded promising clinical data.  In December, we reported encouraging interim data from the first of two randomized Phase 2 clinical studies in patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia treated with our lead drug, CPX-351, and we will report additional efficacy and safety data with CPX-351 later this year."

About Celator Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Celator Pharmaceuticals, Inc., with locations in Princeton, NJ, and Vancouver, BC, is a privately held pharmaceutical company developing new and more effective therapies to treat cancer. CombiPlex®, the company's proprietary drug ratio technology platform, represents a novel approach that identifies molar ratios of drugs that will deliver a synergistic benefit, and locks the desired ratio in a nano-scale drug delivery vehicle that maintains the ratio in patients with the goal of improving clinical outcomes. The company pipeline includes two Phase 2 products; CPX-351 (a liposomal formulation of cytarabine:daunorubicin) for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia and CPX-1 (a liposomal formulation of irinotecan:floxuridine) for the treatment of colorectal cancer; a preclinical stage compound, CPX-571 (a liposomal formulation of irinotecan:cisplatin); and multiple research programs, including the hydrophobic docetaxel prodrug nanoparticle (HDPN) formulation being studied by the National Cancer Institute's Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory. Based on the applications of CombiPlex and the proprietary nanoparticle prodrug delivery platform, Celator is positioned to advance a broad pipeline of cancer therapies involving both previously approved and novel drug agents. For more information, please visit the company's website at www.celatorpharma.com. Information on ongoing trials is available at www.clinicaltrials.gov.

SOURCE Celator Pharmaceuticals, Inc.