AIM-quoted RNA therapy specialist Silence Therapeutics PLC (LON:SLN) has bolstered its patent protections in the United States.
The new US patent, ref 9,695,423, provides further protection for Silence's innovative chemical modification technology.
Silence said it believes that the granted patent claims are relevant to third party medicines that are in ongoing clinical trials.
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"The grant of US 9,695,423 is further confirmation by the US Patent Office of the validity of our patent claims that protect our innovative chemical modification technology,” said Ali Mortazavi, Silence Therapeutics chief executive.
“As previously stated, we will consider potential licences under our patent estate, which could have a significant financial effect relative to the current market capitalisation of Silence."
The company highlighted that chemical modification technology is vital to prevent the degradation of therapeutic short interfering RNA (siRNA) molecules and to enable potent RNA interference (RNAi), and as such it can have a substantial impact on the performance of RNAi drugs.