On July 11, 2019 Kura Oncology, Inc. (Nasdaq: KURA), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of precision medicines for the treatment of cancer, reported that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued and the European Patent Office has granted new patents further protecting the Company’s lead drug candidate, tipifarnib, a potent and selective farnesyl transferase inhibitor (Press release, Kura Oncology, JUL 11, 2019, View Source [SID1234537479]). Tipifarnib is currently being studied in multiple solid tumor and hematologic indications, including a registration-directed clinical trial in HRAS mutant head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC).

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The newly issued U.S. patents are as follows:

U.S. Patent No. 10,335,404 includes multiple claims directed to a method of treating patients with HRAS mutant HNSCC consisting of administering any farnesyl transferase inhibitor; and

U.S. Patent No. 10,292,979 includes multiple claims directed to the use of tipifarnib as a method of treating patients with HRAS mutant non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC).
In addition, the newly granted European patent is as follows:

European Patent No. 3277842 includes multiple claims directed to the use of tipifarnib as a method of treating patients with HRAS mutant HNSCC.
Each of the patents has an expiration date of August 2036, excluding any possible patent term extension.

"Along with advancing the development of tipifarnib in multiple, biomarker-defined patient populations, securing robust intellectual property protection to provide commercial exclusivity in major commercial markets is an important part of our overall corporate strategy," said Troy Wilson, Ph.D., President and CEO of Kura Oncology. "In this regard, we are pleased to announce new U.S. and European patents that cover the treatment of HRAS mutant HNSCC and NSCLC patients as well as the issuance of a first U.S. patent that extends our patent exclusivity to the use of any farnesyl transferase inhibitor for the treatment of HRAS mutant HNSCC patients. We believe these patents strengthen our competitive advantage as we continue to advance the development of tipifarnib, and we intend to continue to aggressively pursue additional intellectual property protection, both in the U.S. and abroad."

Kura’s intellectual property estate comprises multiple patent families with issued or pending claims related to the use of tipifarnib as well as claims directed to the use of any farnesyl transferase inhibitor in biomarker-defined patient populations. In 2018, the USPTO issued separate patents for tipifarnib as a method of treating patients with certain CXCL12-expressing cancers and as a method of treating patients with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, an aggressive form of T-cell lymphoma often characterized by high levels of CXCL12 expression. The newly issued patents further expand protection for tipifarnib, with counterpart patents beginning to issue in foreign countries.