Stuart Therapeutics Announces Important Additions to the Company's Intellectual Property Portfolio

 STUART, Fla., July 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Stuart Therapeutics, Inc. (Stuart), a clinical stage company developing advanced ophthalmic therapeutics, announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark office has issued a Notice of Allowance in each of two patent applications associated with the company's clinical product candidates, including ST-100, Stuart's drug candidate for the treatment of dry eye disease (DED) which recently completed a successful Phase 2 trial. Specifically, the company has secured allowances on the following U.S. patent applications which are exclusively licensed to Stuart Therapeutics by the owner of the applications, Stuart's affiliate Sustain Holdings, LLC:

• U.S. Application No. 16/839,987, which claims compositions of matter comprising Stuart's proprietary Collagen Mimetic Peptide (CMP) compounds, including the ST-100 formulation. The claims of this patent, once issued, are expected to encompass the currently planned commercial version of the company's ST-100 product candidate. This allowed patent application is a continuation of U.S. Patent No. 10,632,168, also exclusively licensed to Stuart, which claims the use of CMP-containing formulations such as ST-100 in treating a variety of ocular diseases, disorders or wounds including dry eye disease and glaucoma.
• U.S. Application No. 17/749,729, also a continuation of U.S. Patent No. 10,632,168, which claims the use of CMP-containing formulations such as ST-100 in treating a variety of ocular diseases, disorders or wounds including cataracts, corneal ulcerations, scleritis, keratoconus and post-operative eye wounds. The company expects to pursue certain of these indications in forthcoming clinical trials.

These allowances are expected to result in the issuance of two new patents within the next 6-8 weeks, upon the completion of certain administrative requirements. The grant of these patents further strengthens Stuart's U.S. and international patent portfolio for its PolyCol^TM (PolyCol) platform of synthesized CMPs and their use in potentially treating, preventing and/or diagnosing a variety of diseases and disorders in humans and veterinary animals.

"These new patent allowances, combined with previous patent awards in the U.S. and abroad for various methods of use including treating ocular surface disease and glaucoma, means that Stuart's PolyCol CMP platform, and particularly its ST-100 product candidate, has broad and strong intellectual property protection, and will be very important as we continue to develop and ultimately seek approval for commercialization of ST-100 and other CMP drug candidates" said Eric Schlumpf, President & CEO of Stuart.

In pre-clinical animal studies and in human clinical trials, Stuart's PolyCol CMPs have been shown to repair damaged collagen triple helices and restore epithelial and neuronal cells and cellular processes that rely on native collagen as a part of the associated Extracellular Matrix (ECM) for promotion and maintenance of normal cell and tissue structure and function. The company's CMPs are believed to work by reconstituting the collagen triple helix in areas in vivo where it has been disrupted by disease or wounding, thereby causing a recovery of the normal cell signaling and structural roles that collagen plays in tissue homeostasis.

ST-100, Stuart's first drug candidate, has demonstrated in pre-clinical animal testing that it provides rapid repair of damaged corneal epithelial and sub-epithelial tissues in the eye and reduction in the production of pro-inflammatory mediators, coupled with restoration of corneal nerve structures, making it an ideal therapeutic candidate for treating DED and other ocular surface indications. Applied in a drop formulation, ST-100 has also demonstrated that it can lead to rapid improvement in the symptoms and signs of DED in humans, as seen in Stuart's Phase 2 clinical trial. Stuart believes that ST-100 should be broadly applicable to the estimated 30 million sufferers of DED in the United States, working via a direct reparative approach to alleviating painful eye surface damage that is a hallmark of DED.

About Stuart Therapeutics:

Stuart Therapeutics is a clinical stage pharmaceutical company focused on the development of PolyCol, a collagen mimetic peptide therapeutic platform. The company is developing a variety of anterior and posterior segment ophthalmologic applications based on the PolyCol technology.

ST-100 is a candidate therapeutic that is in pre-clinical evaluation and has not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in treating, preventing, curing or diagnosing any disease or disorder. Similarly, the statements contained in this Announcement have not been evaluated by the FDA and may be considered "forward-looking statements" under applicable securities laws. Such forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual performance and financial results in future periods to differ materially from any projections of future performance or result expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although forward-looking statements contained in this presentation are based upon what management of Stuart Therapeutics believes are reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Stuart Therapeutics undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by applicable securities laws. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Contact:
Eric Schlumpf
[email protected]

SOURCE Stuart Therapeutics