Access Pharmaceuticals has received notification from the Hong Kong Patent Office that a patent for MuGard has been granted. The patent (HK1126134) protects a wide range of liquid formulations for the prevention and treatment of mucosal diseases and disorders.
"Being awarded the Hong Kong patent further expands and further strengthens our global MuGard patent portfolio position," commented Jeffrey Davis, president and CEO of Access. "We are actively seeking additional marketing partners worldwide and bolstering MuGard patent protection in areas like Hong Kong is in line with this licensing strategy."
MuGard provides the oral mucosa with a thin protective hydrogel layer, which has been demonstrated in several clinical studies of mucositis to benefit patients in terms of reduced pain and discomfort, as well as a reduction in objective mucositis scores.
Access recently announced that the American Cancer Society's journal publication, Cancer, featured MuGard as the cover article of its May 2014 edition. The publication, entitled "Multi-Institutional, Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial to Assess the Efficacy of a Mucoadhesive Hydrogel (MuGard) in Mitigating Oral Mucositis Symptoms in Patients Being Treated With Chemoradiation Therapy for Cancers of the Head and Neck," discusses data on Access' post-marketing clinical trial that evaluated the efficacy of MuGard in controlling symptoms caused by oral mucositis in 120 patients receiving chemoradiation therapy for the treatment of cancers of the head and neck. In the trial, MuGard was shown to be superior to the sham control saline-bicarbonate rinse in mitigating oral mucositis symptoms and delaying oral mucositis progression.