Pressure BioSciences Inc. (NASQ:PBIO) has five new patents to protect its intellectual property following recent actions by U.S. and foreign regulatory bodies.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued Easton, Mass.-based PBIO a patent for its pressure-enhanced extraction and purification technology, complementing the company’s three previously issued patents for pressure-cycling inventions. Regulators in Japan and Canada each issued a new patent to PBIO recently, while IP Australia issued two patents.
The new rulings increase the company‘s patent total to 24 — 14 in the U.S. and three each in Europe and Australia and two apiece in Japan and Canada.
Pressure BioSciences in 2007 began placements of the BaroCycler, which subjects protein samples to up to 35,000 psi, accelerating the digestion and extraction of protein from cells and preparing the samples for mass spectrometry. The company also is working to soon introduce three other products building on its pressure-cycling technology:
- ProteoSolve, designed to extract DNA, lipids, proteins and other compounds from plant and animal cells;
- PCT Shredder, which uses high pressure to quickly break apart tough samples;
- And Proteolysis–PrEP, designed to speed up trypsin digestion, prior to mass spectrometry.
In a statement issued Jan. 12, CEO Richard Schumacher said PBIO is now looking for a strategic partner to help it market and distribute its devices. He and other PBIO officials in mid-November said they were close to signing a “large, multi-national life sciences company” as a partner but did not indicate how soon they could strike a deal. Other goals for 2010 include expanding its customer base and developing new products, Schumacher said.
Pressure BioSciences struck a co-marketing deal with Protein Forest last October, before Cell Biosciences Inc. acquired Protein Forest in December. At the time, Schumacher told MassDevice that it was unclear what the impact of the Cell Biosciences buyout would be on the arrangement with Protein Forest, but that it might wind up being an even better deal in the end.
“I’m expecting that the agreement will continue in some respect. It might even broaden the advantages of this,” Schumacher told us. “Cell Biosciences is a much larger company than Protein Forest, so it’s possible that the agreement might even be enhanced.”