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Company News: Cardior strengthens patent portfolio of miRNAs for the diagnosis and therapy of heart and kidney diseases

— Key patents acquired from Bayerische Patentallianz

Cardior Pharmaceuticals GmbH, a company focused on the development of noncoding RNA (ncRNA) therapeutics for patients with myocardial infarction and heart failure, today announced it has acquired a portfolio of four microRNA (miRNA) patents from Bayerische Patentallianz GmbH (BayPAT).

miRNAs are short pieces of ncRNA native to all human cells that act as regulators of gene expression. Cardior Pharmaceuticals has developed a novel class of ncRNA-based therapeutics modulating entire disease pathways to treat diseases with a high unmet medical need.

Among the inventors of the four acquired patents is Prof. Dr. med. Thomas Thum, co-founder and CSO of Cardior. The patents were filed while he was Research Group Leader at Julius-Maximilians-University, Wuerzburg (Germany). Financial terms were not disclosed.

The acquired portfolio comprises three patents on the use of certain miRNAs for the diagnosis and treatment of heart diseases such as cardiac fibrosis and ischemia/ reperfusion injury and one patent covering a number of targets relevant for the diagnosis and treatment of ischemia/reperfusion injuries of the kidney.

“We are delighted to expand our patent portfolio beyond heart diseases,” said Dr. Claudia Ulbrich, CEO of Cardior. “The transaction strengthens our position in cardiology and also enables us to move to further disease areas in the future.”

She added that Cardior is preparing for the first clinical study of its lead candidate CDR, a synthetic antisense-oligonucleotide inhibitor of a molecular master-switch microRNA, which plays a crucial role in the development of heart failure. CDR aims to halt and reverse heart failure by acting on well-defined cellular pathways and is given by an easy route of administration. Cardior expects to initiate clinical studies in 2019.