KAI Pharmaceuticals Acquires Patents from Progen, Broadening KAI’s Intellectual Property Estate Covering Peptide-Based Ther...

KAI Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held drug discovery and development company, announced today the acquisition of an extensive collection of issued and pending patents from Progen Pharmaceuticals Limited (ASX: PGL; Nasdaq:PGLA), a globally focused biotechnology company. The patents claim compositions and methods related to transporter molecules that can deliver compounds, including peptides such as those being developed in the KAI pipeline, across biological membranes and into cells. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

“This is important technology to KAI, further strengthening our position as a leader in the field of peptide therapeutics,” said Steven James, President and CEO of KAI. “We use rationally designed peptides to target individual protein kinase C (PKC) isozymes inside cells. Combining these small peptides with peptide transporter systems is the basis for the cellular delivery of our multiple clinical candidates. Our unique approach overcomes lack of specificity, the primary deficiency encountered in previous attempts to develop PKC-targeted therapeutics using conventional methods. Beyond PKC, there are a number of both intracellular and extracellular targets that are amenable to KAI’s peptide-based R&D platform.”

About KAI Pharmaceuticals

KAI is a drug discovery and development company with multiple, novel clinical-stage programs in cardiovascular disease and pain. KAI’s lead product candidate, KAI-9803, is currently in a Phase 2b study (PROTECTION AMI) designed to assess the effect of KAI-9803 on reducing myocardial injury in heart attack patients. KAI’s second clinical program, KAI-1678, has the potential to address both the inflammatory and neuropathic pain markets and currently is in multiple Phase 2a studies.

KAI’s expertise is in the selective modulation of intracellular protein:protein interactions and delivery of peptides into the cell. This approach has broad potential and has been validated clinically. The Company has applied its core expertise to discover highly potent and selective inhibitors and activators for validated PKC protein kinase C (PKC) isozymes. KAI is based in South San Francisco, California, and can be found online at www.kaipharma.com.