PharmaGap Adds to Patent Portfolio For GAP-107B8 Cancer Drug

PharmaGap Inc. has announced the first of two provisional patent applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office covering the results of development of PharmaGap's lead cancer drug GAP-107B8 during 2011 to date.

These provisional patent filings covering the GAP-107B8 formulations represent significant steps forward in the Company's ability to realize value from the Company's drug development program.

This filing, titled "Anti-Cancer Peptides and Uses Thereof", addresses both the original and modified forms of GAP-107B8.

The modified version of GAP-107B8 has been created through the application of commonly used drug formulation techniques in order to advantageously adjust the molecular properties of GAP-107B8 to enhance stability and biological activity of a drug compound while maintaining its essential nature.

This filing also expands previous claims for GAP-107B8, and specifically addresses methods of treating malignant ascites (a severe and common morbidity occurrence in ovarian cancer and other cancers listed below), of treating or preventing metastasis of a cancer, and for the inhibition of Akt expression.

Akt is a serine/threonine protein kinase that plays a key role in multiple cellular processes (cell motility and invasion, hormone independence, and chemotherapy and radiation resistance) and has been implicated as a major factor in many types of cancer, including certain breast cancers, pancreatic cancers, colorectal cancers, gastric cancers and ovarian cancers.