Bharat Biotech gets patent for Lysostaphin

Hyderabad-based vaccines and biotherapeutics manufacturer Bharat Biotech International announced on Wednesday that its anti-staphylococcal molecule Lysostaphin had secured patent rights in US, Europe, China, Australia and other nations.

Lysostaphin is a potent anti-staphylococcal therapeutic with a targeted specificity against staphylococcus aureus, which causes a range of diseases including wound infections, systemic and life-threatening conditions (endocarditis), osteomyelitis, pneumonia, brain abscesses, meningitis and bacteremia, food poisoning, scalded skin syndrome and toxic shock syndrome.

Krishna Ella, chairman and managing director, said the patent rights for lysostaphin was a significant milestone in the company's new therapeutic product development programme and would pave a way to develop products for regulated markets in addition to India. A pre-investigational new drug application meeting of the pre-clinical data has already been held with USFDA, he said.

Lysostaphin is bactericidal and is indifferent to antibiotic resistance. "Lysostaphin could be a drug of choice for treating life threatening bacteremia,'' he said. The company so far has eight Indian and five international patents.

 
Bharat Biotech is currently developing swine flu vaccine to combat H1N1 virus epidemic in India and other countries, according to a release.