Medifocus, Inc. Obtains Newly Allowed Patent and an Extensive Intellectual Property Portfolio as Part of the Recently Announced
July 30, 2012 10:00 ET
Medifocus, Inc. Obtains Newly Allowed Patent and an Extensive Intellectual Property Portfolio as Part of the Recently Announced Asset Purchase With Boston Scientific Covering Prolieve® for the Treatment of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH)
COLUMBIA, MD and TORONTO--(Marketwire - Jul 30, 2012) - Medifocus, Inc. (
This patent, titled, "Device and method for treatment of tissue adjacent a bodily conduit by thermocompression," was granted on July 17, 2012 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). John Mon, Chief Operating Officer of Medifocus, lead the development of the Prolieve® technology before it was sold to Boston Scientific. He is the co-author to this recently allowed patent and also the author/co-author to over 80% of the total patents that were acquired by Medifocus through the Prolieve asset purchase. This new patent portfolio firmly establishes Medifocus' ownership of the Prolieve device and enhances the Company's ability to develop additional treatment devices for both benign and cancerous diseases.
Prolieve is approved by the FDA for the treatment of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH). BPH is caused by the enlargement of the male prostate gland, which affects over 50 percent of men over the age of 50. The symptoms of BPH range from weak urinary stream and frequent urgency to the total inability to urinate.
Prolieve is a patent protected device that utilizes intra-cavitary catheters to deliver a combination of microwave heating and balloon dilatation of the prostatic urethra, which leads to the relief of BPH symptoms. Treatment with Prolieve is a minimally invasive, non-surgical, in-office procedure, which offers patients clinically documented immediate reduction of BPH symptom scores.
The BPH drug market estimated at $8 billion and is rapidly growing. BPH patients can be treated using Prolieve in urologic offices throughout the United States. In addition, as part of the asset purchase agreement, the Prolieve treatment has been made available to physicians using the nationwide mobile service provider, Rocky Mountain Mobile Services.
Prolieve was originally developed and commercialized by the current Medifocus management, product development, clinical and regulatory teams. The assets acquired by Medifocus include all Prolieve hardware inventories, Rocky Mountain Mobile Services and its mobile distribution assets, as well as, the intellectual property portfolio associated with the Prolieve technology. The Prolieve design is based on a platform technology from which other disposable microwave heating catheters for various deep seated anatomical sites can also be developed.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) has in any way passed upon the merits of the proposed transactions and neither of the foregoing entities has approved or disapproved of the contents of this press release.
About Medifocus
Medifocus owns a patented microwave focusing technology platform (the Adaptive Phased Array ("APA") technology), which can precisely target and control microwave energy to cause heating in cancerous tumors anywhere in the body reliably and repeatedly. The ability to target tumors with a precision controlled dose of heat can be used to destroy tumors at higher temperatures, to treat tumors in combination with chemotherapy and/or radiation at moderate temperatures for increased effectiveness and reduced toxicity and to trigger the targeted release of therapeutic drugs and genes at tumor sites at lower temperatures. While the core technology has been licensed from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Medifocus has further refined the precision of the microwave focusing and control ability and developed a commercial system dedicated exclusively for the treatment of Breast Cancer. With the acquisition of Prolieve, Medifocus now owns in addition, a revenue generating commercial BPH heat treatment product generating cash flow to support the development and commercialization of other catheter based or APA based external focused heat systems for targeted thermotherapy of deep seated tumors anywhere in the body. Pleasevisit [ www.medifocusinc.com ] for more details
About Boston Scientific
Boston Scientific is a worldwide developer, manufacturer and marketer of medical devices that are used in a broad range of interventional medical specialties. For more information, please visit: [ www.bostonscientific.com ].
Forward-Looking Statements and Information
This news release contains forward-looking statements, which may not be based on historical facts. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results events or developments to be materially different from any future results, events or developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors should be considered carefully and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any obligation to update any such factors or to publicly announce the results of any revisions to any of the forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect future results, events or developments.