OrbusNeich Granted Expanded U.S. Patent of Genous™ Endothelial Progenitor Cell Capture Technology

FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla., Jan. 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- OrbusNeich today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted an additional patent expanding protection of the company's Genous endothelial progenitor cell (EPC) capture technology.

The patent (U.S. Pat. No. US 7,803,183) covers a coating on an implantable medical device that has one or more layers of a matrix.  Incorporated into the matrix are antibodies or antibody fragments that allow for capture in vivo of circulating EPCs.

"This patent further expands OrbusNeich's unique intellectual property portfolio of the Genous technology," said Robert Cottone, vice president of intellectual property and technologies at OrbusNeich. "We are continuing to develop our pro-healing technology for our next generation stent platform, which combines both luminal cell capture with abluminal drug elution and is currently in clinical trial evaluation."

About Genous  

Genous is OrbusNeich's patented EPC capture technology that promotes the accelerated natural healing of the vessel wall after the implantation of blood-contact devices such as stents. The technology consists of an antibody surface coating that attracts EPCs circulating in the blood to the device to form an endothelial layer that provides protection against thrombosis and modulates restenosis.

The Genous Stent, which  has been commercially available in more than 60 countries since 2005, has been proven as a safe, effective alternative to drug-eluting stents and is supported by data from more than 5,000 patients in company-sponsored clinical studies. There is a growing body of evidence from multiple clinical studies that the Genous Stent is effective for patients who are non-responsive to or cannot tolerate long-term dual antiplatelet therapy.

About OrbusNeich

OrbusNeich is a global company that designs, develops, manufactures and markets innovative medical devices for the treatment of vascular diseases. Current products are the world's first pro-healing stent, the Genous Stent, as well as stents, balloons and guiding catheters marketed under the names of Blazer™, R stent, Scoreflex™, Sapphire™ and Sapphire NC. Development stage products include the Combo™ Bio-engineered Sirolimus Eluting Stent, or Combo Stent, which combines the Genous pro-healing technology for rapid endothelial coverage with an abluminal sirolimus drug elution for the control of neointimal proliferation. OrbusNeich is headquartered in Hong Kong and has operations in Shenzhen, China; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Hoevelaken, The Netherlands; and Tokyo, Japan. OrbusNeich, which has provided medical devices to physicians through its predecessor companies since 1979, supplies products today to interventional cardiologists in more than 60 countries. For more information, visit www.OrbusNeich.com.

SOURCE OrbusNeich