Taiwan Liposome Co (台灣微脂體) yesterday said it has been granted a patent for its “BioSeizer” drug delivery system platform in the US, which has been used in the company’s ophthalmology drug for macular edema.
The company said in a statement that the US Patent and Trademark Office has approved its patent for its ophthalmic drug delivery system containing phospholipids and cholesterol.
This came after the company secured the patent for prolonging drug lifetime in the eyes from the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand earlier last month.
The company has also filed ophthalmic drug delivery patent applications with the authorities in Taiwan, Europe, Japan, China and Australia.
Applications of the patent include the company’s new drug Prodex, which enables the drug to be in effect for four to six months, according to the company.
Taiwan Liposome said the most common treatment for macular edema involves injecting anti-vascular endothelial growth factor drugs directly into the vitreous body of the eye using a 22-gauge needle, administered on a monthly basis.
Using Prodex would help to drastically reduce the administration frequency from 12 times to two or three times annually, the company said.
Taiwan Liposome specializes in the development of liposomal drug formulations, polymeric micelles for nanoscale drug delivery and other leading-edge and novel drug delivery mechanisms, as the Nangang Software Park-based (南港軟體園區) company aims to improve the release profile of existing drugs.
The company has gained approvals for its investigational new drug applications for Prodex from Taiwan and US authorities. The drug is now undergoing its phase one and phase two clinical studies, the company added.
Taiwan Liposome did not elaborate on the potential market value of Prodex. However, the company said Lucentis and Eylea, the two current treatments of macular diseases, generate aggregated revenue of close to US$5 billion annually.
Taiwan Liposome shares rose 0.23 percent to NT$219 yesterday on the GRETAI Securities Market before the patent news announcement.
They have dropped 36.52 percent so far this year, underperforming the over-the-counter index’s increase of 7.82 percent over the same period.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained