Additional patent granted to Corline
January 26th, 2010
Swedish company Corline® Systems AB, a maker and distributor of a unique heparin coating technology for use in Regenerative Medicine, announced today that it has been granted CA Patent Application no. 2361949 by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. The patent covers methods for application and use of the company’s proprietary heparin coating technology for coating and protecting cells at transplantation, and especially Islets of Langerhans for transplantation to diabetes Type-1 patients.
“This is technology that holds the potential to radically improve Regenerative Medicine of today”, comments CEO Henrik Nittmar.
The life saving therapy of transplanting human donated insulin producing cells which are clustered together in what is referred to as Islets of Langerhans, has experienced problems when translated from bench to clinic. One major area of challenge is to protect the transplanted cells from the immediate response of the receiving patient’s immune system, commonly referred to as the Innate Immune System, which leads to a massive cell loss during the first hour after transplantation. Corline has developed a unique technology that can attenuate this reaction and save valuable donated cells from destruction. By attaching Corline’s heparin conjugate on the cell surface, cells are hidden from the aggressive reactions normally occurring when blood comes in contact with material that are recognized as foreign. Corline has the Swedish Medical Products Agency’s approval to start clinical trials for this promising technology.
“The newly granted patent adds to our already strong intellectual property position, and it is especially encouraging that the grant has been made by Canadian authorities. The pioneering work for the second wave of transplantation therapy to patients with diabetes Type-1 was made by researchers in Edmonton, Canada. This makes Canada a very important market in itself and its closeness to the huge US market adds to that importance”, concludes CEO Henrik Nittmar.
About Corline® and CHS™
Corline® is a biotechnology company based in Uppsala, Sweden, that develops, manufactures and distributes a proprietary patent protected heparin conjugate surface (CHS™) that can be used both for medical devices and for Regenerative Medicine (cell therapy and tissue engineering). In 2008 the market for Regenerative Medicine totaled a 1.5 bn USD turnover, with a 90 % share being focused in the US. The US based market analysis company Life Science Intelligence, estimates the total potential to be over 100 bn USD.
CHS™ can be used to coat living cells and tissue without compromising their biological functions. CHS™ helps attenuate the local inflammation that is formed on and around grafts at transplantation, and promotes new blood vessels to grow more quickly to support the graft. For the patient, CHS™ potentially means better clinical outcome and a more rapid recovery from treatment.
Corline® conducts pre-clinical and clinical studies within a number of cell and tissue therapy areas. These studies are a first step towards realizing the company’s vision of having its CHS platform technology widely used within the future Regenerative Medicine market. The CHS technology is protected by more than 20 granted and pending patents.
Corline® is a privately held company, financially backed by members of the Crafoord family, primarily known for the development of Swedish medical device company Gambro (founded by Holger Crafoord), and Lars Sunnanväder, a well-known entrepreneur who has founded several medical device and biotechnology companies, e.g. heart/lung assist and coronary surgical device manufacturer Jostra, lung assist device manufacturer Novalung, Jotec, Jolife, Joline and other companies within this field.
For more information, please contact:
Henrik Nittmar, CEO
Tel. +46 (0)18 71 30 90
Corline Systems AB
Box 956
715 09 Uppsala
SWEDEN
