CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 19 MA-Biopure-PatentEuro
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Biopure Corporation
(Nasdaq: BPUR) announced today that it has successfully defended a challenge
at the European Patent Office (EPO) to its European Patent entitled, "A Method
for Chromatographic Removal of Prions." This European Patent covers Biopure's
innovative purification method for removing potentially infectious prion
proteins from oxygen therapeutics and provides Biopure with granted patent
rights to its method in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy,
Spain, and Switzerland. The Opposition Division of the EPO supported Biopure's
rights to all of the claims originally granted by the EPO without any
modifications or restrictions. The patent challenge was brought in an
Opposition by Switzerland-based Octapharma AG. Biopure also has granted
patents covering its novel method in many additional countries, including the
United States.
"We are pleased with the decision of the European Patent Office and to
have this dispute resolved," said Zafiris G. Zafirelis, President and Chief
Executive Officer of Biopure.
The patented method is part of Biopure's purification procedures that
result in an oxygen therapeutic that independent experts have concluded is
effectively free of any risk of infectious disease transmission. In addition,
Hemopure(R) is stable without refrigeration for 36 months (2 degrees to 30
degrees centigrade) and for 18 months at elevated temperature (40 degrees
centigrade) and is compatible with all blood types. These properties permit
the product to be stocked well in advance of anticipated use.
Biopure Corporation
Biopure Corporation develops, manufactures and markets pharmaceuticals,
called oxygen therapeutics, that are intravenously administered to deliver
oxygen to the body's tissues. Hemopure(R) [hemoglobin glutamer - 250
(bovine)], or HBOC-201, is approved for sale in South Africa for the treatment
of surgical patients who are acutely anemic. The company is developing
Hemopure for other indications and is supporting the U.S. Navy's
government-funded efforts to develop a potential out-of-hospital trauma
indication. Biopure's veterinary product Oxyglobin(R) [hemoglobin glutamer -
200 (bovine)], or HBOC-301, the only oxygen therapeutic approved for marketing
by both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Commission, is
indicated for the treatment of anemia in dogs. Biopure has sold approximately
200,000 units of Oxyglobin since its launch in 1998.
Contact: Tiana Gorham
Biopure Corporation
(617) 234-6826
IR@biopure.com
SOURCE Biopure Corporation
