AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mati Therapeutics Inc. (“Mati”) announced today that it has been granted U.S. Patent No. 9,011,361 entitled “Lacrimal Implant Detection” and European Union Patent No. EP2614844 entitled “Drug Cores for Sustained Release of Therapeutic Agents.” These patents provide coverage for important elements of Mati’s novel punctal plug delivery system (“PPDS”) for treatment of ocular indications including certain features for detecting the implants in the puncta and in the composition of the drug-eluting cores that feature in this technology.
Mati’s current IP portfolio includes 15 patent families that span the PPDS platform and related product candidates. At present, a total of 57 patents have been granted or allowed and an additional 98 patents are pending. These granted and pending patents cover major national and international markets, including the United States, Europe, Japan, Canada, Korea, Israel, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Russia, Taiwan, Brazil, Mexico and India. The earliest filed PPDS platform technology patent family has a projected expiry date in 2027, with other families projected to expire at different times through 2033.
“In the past year an additional 17 patents have been granted or allowed, further bolstering our growing intellectual property portfolio for Mati’s PPDS technology,” commented Bob Butchofsky, CEO of Mati. “We believe the PPDS platform technology may potentially be used to treat several ocular indications, including glaucoma, post-cataract surgery, ocular allergies and dry eye disease, each representing potentially substantial market opportunities for Mati.”
Mati continues to develop, support and maintain its intellectual property portfolio with the goal of providing protection from competitors and further expanding the patent coverage for the PPDS platform. While the protection afforded by intellectual property is subject to uncertainties, Mati believes that its patent portfolio provides meaningful protection for the PPDS delivery platform.
Mati’s current focus is on the latanoprost punctal plug delivery system (“L-PPDS”) for patients with ocular hypertension and glaucoma. The program is currently in a Phase IIb multi-center clinical trial in the United States.
About Mati Therapeutics Inc.
Mati is developing PPDS, a sustained release ocular drug delivery platform that Mati believes has the potential to treat a range of ocular indications. The platform utilizes a device called a punctal plug, which is inserted into a patient’s tear duct (or punctum). The device is already approved to treat dry eye syndrome, but Mati is the first to conduct clinical trials in the United States testing punctal plugs as an anchoring device for a drug delivery platform. A drug-eluting core is inserted into Mati’s proprietary punctal plug, which allows medication to be continuously released into the tear film of the eye over a period of time. Mati believes PPDS has the potential to become a more reliable alternative to several eye drop therapies, which can be ineffective because many patients are unwilling or unable to adhere to self-administered eye-drop regimens.
L-PPDS is the first product candidate that Mati is seeking to develop and commercialize using the PPDS platform. L-PPDS utilizes a drug eluting core containing latanoprost, which is currently used as an eye drop medication to treat elevated intraocular pressure in patients suffering from ocular hypertension and open-angle glaucoma. Since acquiring the PPDS development program from QLT Inc. in April 2013, Mati has designed and initiated a final Phase IIb trial of L-PPDS. If the results of the Phase IIb trial are favorable, Mati intends to use the results to finalize a protocol for a Phase III pivotal trial of L-PPDS. There can be no assurance that Mati will apply for or secure the regulatory approvals needed to sell L-PPDS or any other product using PPDS or as to whether commercially viable markets will exist for any approved product.
Mati was founded by former senior officers of QLT Inc., including Bob Butchofsky, CEO of Mati and former CEO of QLT Inc., and Chris Muller, former Head of Cornea, Refractive and Medical Marketing at Abbott Medical Optics. Combined, the senior management team of Mati has over 75 years of ocular development and commercial experience. Mati’s corporate head office is in Austin, Texas. Mati undertakes research and development activities through its wholly-owned Canadian subsidiary, Mati Therapeutics (Canada) Inc.