Biotech, Drug Development, Patents

Sirtris Awarded Patent

Wade Roush 3/19/08

Sirtris Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SIRT) of Cambridge, MA, said today that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued to Sirtris the first patent ever granted for a class of compounds that activate SIRT1, a human enzyme that is the focus of much of the company’s research. In lab animals, Sirtris has found, activating SIRT1 lowers glucose levels and improves insulin sensitivity; the patent covers a potential Type 2 diabetes treatment that the company plans to test in human safety trials this year.

Wade Roush is Xconomy's chief correspondent. You can e-mail him at wroush@xconomy.com, call him at (617) 252-7323, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/wroush.