Background

The SK1 portfolio of patents comprises 11 patent families (>70 patents and patent applications in total) which have been filed via the PCT route and are either currently under prosecution in the National Phase or already granted.

The portfolio is directed to a range of newly identified therapeutic and diagnostic applications for SK1 modulation, in the areas of cancer development, inflammatory processes, diabetes and endothelial cell functionality.

The patent portfolio amounts to a picket fence protecting the field in which new treatments will be developed. It is anticipated that the results of the development program will be novel chemical entities or, if they are known chemicals, novel uses for those chemicals. Hence, the program is expected to spawn additional new patents which will extend the portfolio into areas of increasing value through the protection of specific small molecules and chemical classes of SK1 inhibitors.