InSphero Granted Hanging Drop Patent in United States

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) officially granted InSphero AG full protection of its GravityPLUS™ hanging drop technology.  InSphero, the world's leading developer of easy-to use solutions for organotypic 3D cell culture models and body-on-a-chip systems, now holds hanging drop patents in the world's major pharmaceutical and biotechnology markets, including the United States, Europe, China, Japan, and Singapore. The core patent WO2010031194 describes multi-well plates which allow the generation of hanging drops for 3D cell culture, using convenient top loading of the cell suspension.

InSphero commercialized the hanging drop technology as the GravityPLUS™ Hanging Drop System in 2010.  The system includes the GravityPLUS™ plate used for production of 3D spheroids in hanging drops, and also the companion GravityTRAP™ culture and assay plate, to which 3D microtissues are transferred for long-term culture and drug testing. 

Dr. Jan Lichtenberg, CEO and co-founder of InSphero, says that the favorable decision has been a long time coming for InSphero.  “We are excited the USPTO has recognized the originality of our design, and granted protection of the investment we have made into the creation of new technology.  This protection allows us to operate unhindered in the US market, gives our customers there added confidence to invest in InSphero technology as their platform of choice for 3D cell culture, and provides the grounds necessary to defend against industry competitors attempting to imitate our technology.”

Granting of the patent on September 8 followed InSphero’s recent completion of a Series C financing round , and August announcement naming PerkinElmer as the exclusive global distributor of InSphero hanging drop and ultra-low attachment (ULA) plates for 3D cell culture.