Photogen Receives Notice Of Allowance Covering Imaging Technology

Photogen Technologies Inc. has received a Notice of Allowance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that approves 79 claims on the Photogen's patent application covering its light- and laser-based imaging technology.

Photogen scientists are working toward the development of proprietary light- and laser-based technologies to enhance the safety and efficacy of photodynamic therapy and photodynamic imaging for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, infectious diseases and other medical conditions. Technology developed from the imaging patent would employ light-activated imaging agents to detect diagnostically significant features at a cellular level. Photogen Technologies hopes to identify and diagnose disease by applying light energy delivered via its two-photon excitation technology to photoactive agents that contain a targeting molecule making them preferentially absorbed in diseased cells. This imaging technology has not been demonstrated in animal or human clinical trials.

As a result of this Notice of Allowance, the company expects the Patent and Trademark Office to issue a patent covering those claims.

Photogen previously received a Patent and Trademark Office Notice of Allowance for over 60 claims relating to the use of two-photon excitation for therapeutic purposes. These proprietary technologies use two-photon excitation to deliver light to particular sites in tissue and activate photodynamic drugs for the purpose of treating a variety of diseases.