BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - French pharmaceutical company AB Science SA (ABSCF.PK) announced Monday that it has received Chinese patent protecting Masitinib in the treatment of Covid-19 until April 2041.
In Paris, AB Science shares were gaining around 7.5 percent to trade at 1.5740 euros.
The Chinese Patent Office has issued a patent providing intellectual property protection for its lead compound masitinib to methods of treating severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection causing COVID-19, i.e. a medical use patent. The new Chinese patent adds one more indication with long term intellectual property protection, the firm noted.
AB Science said it signed an exclusive licensing agreement, as part of a collaborative research agreement with the University of Chicago, to conduct research for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 with masitinib and other AB Science proprietary drugs.
In case of commercialization in viral disease, AB Science will benefit from an exclusive, royalty-bearing license on any discoveries made with AB Science products This includes 1% of net sales on first registered product and 0.3% of net sales on further registered product to be paid to the University of Chicago.
The patent is based in part on preclinical data that has been published in the journal Science, and which identified masitinib as a broad antiviral agent capable of treating SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19), including demonstration of in vivo activity in mice, with efficacy maintained, in vitro, against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern.
AB Science also recently communicated the positive results of its phase 2 study evaluating masitinib in COVID-19.
Olivier Hermine, President of the Scientific Committee of AB Science and member of the Acadmie des Sciences in France, then said, 'This result confirms the anti-inflammatory activity of masitinib, by controlling activated macrophages and mast cells involved in COVID. In addition, several publications highlighted the capacity of masitinib to act as an indirect broad antiviral agent against COVID. With this result, masitinib can be considered a drug of choice to be evaluated in the context of a future pandemic.'
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