Nicholas Piramal secure compound patent for novel anticancer drugs

Nicholas Piramal (India) had announced that the US Patent and trademark office has granted product patent to the company. The granted claims of the patent cover the novel compounds, including the company's clinical candidate P-276-00, and processes for their preparation. These compounds are being developed as therapeutic agents useful in the treatment of cancer.Earlier the company has been granted a patent in South Africa for its CDK inhibitors. The company has related national phase applications in 14 other countries. The company has filed five other patent applications covering different aspects of its CDK inhibitors.Dr Noopur Raje from Dr Ken Anderson group from Dana Faber Cancer Institute is giving an oral presentation at 49th Annual Meeting and Exposition of American Society of Haematology (ASH) being held at Atlanta, Georgia in US from December 8-10, 2007. They have carried out independent studies on the company's lead compound P-276-00 in Multiple Myeloma and will be presenting new data on its pre-clinical studies.The ASH annual meeting is the premier forum for physicians and researchers to hear the most up-to-date developments in Haematology. The event attracts over 16,000 Haematologists and other health-care professionals from 100 countries around the world.Dr Swati Piramal, director strategic alliances and communications of the company said, "The presentation of data on pre-clinical studies at annual conference of American Society of Haematology marks an important milestone for development of NPIL's Oncology compound".