Aurum Biosciences Has Second Patent Granted in the EU
Aurum Biosciences are pleased to announce that that they have been granted a second EU patent for their ABL-101 imaging technology. This patent will add to Aurum’s growing portfolio of intellectual property protection for the diagnostic technology, which Aurum are currently developing for use in acute stroke patients.
Stroke usually occurs when a clot blocks a blood vessel in the brain. Treatment options are limited with the only available drug being alteplase, which dissolves the clot to restore blood flow. Although alteplase is clinically- and cost-effective, it is hugely under-utilized (<10% treated), with a number of safety-related concerns restricting its use to within 4.5hr of stroke onset. The recent emergence of mechanical thrombectomy, which utilises clot retrieval devices to unblock the artery thereby restoring blood flow, represents the first major advance in stroke treatment since alteplase. However, at present this is only suitable in selected patients and requires rapid access to specialist centres.
Accurate diagnostic identification of the salvageable brain tissue (penumbra) is crucial for improving treatment decisions in stroke patients. However, the current lack of an accurate imaging technique to identify penumbra acutely following stroke has hampered progress in attempts to improve patient management.
Treatment could be given more safely to more people if brain scanning could reliably identify penumbra. Penumbra becomes irreversibly damaged if blood supply is not restored, but volume of penumbra tissue and the time it survives, varies widely among patients. Some have no penumbra (so cannot benefit from treatment) even within 4.5hr, while in others penumbra persists well beyond 4.5hr.
Aurum’s technology will provide a solution to this unmet medical need through its unique combined diagnostic/therapeutic approach in which an intravenous oxygen-carrier (ABL-101) is used to enhance imaging of brain metabolic responses using MRI, whilst providing additional tissue oxygen to support the tissue under stress. The diagnostic technology enables differentiation of salvageable penumbra from irreversibly damaged tissue offering significant advances in both stroke diagnosis and treatment. Patient management will become personalized based on metabolic status of the tissue, moving away from treatment decisions based purely on time from stroke onset, which is often unknown.