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Patented Protein from Fayetteville Firm Treats Bone and Hair Loss

2 min read

Fayetteville startup BiologicsMD has been awarded a U.S. patent for the development of fusion proteins that help in the treatment of bone and hair loss.

The patent, titled “Fusion Proteins of Collagen Binding-Domain and Parathyroid Hormone,” was issued June 23 to the University of Arkansas System Board of Trustees, the Ochsner Clinic Foundation and the National University Corporation Kagawa University in Japan. 

BiologicsMD is a UA-affiliated startup based at the university’s Arkansas Research & Technology Park. It is a client firm of Innovate Arkansas and a portfolio company of VIC Technology Venture Development.

(More Patents: Innovate Arkansas maintains a database of U.S. patents issued to Arkansas inventors and assigned to Arkansas entities here.)

Joshua Sakon, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the UA, is one of four co-inventors of the pharmaceutical protein now known as BMD-2341.

“A derivative of the original drug has an effect in reversing or suppressing hair loss,” he said in a UA news release. “Specifically, it could be applied to treat alopecia, a condition in which hair loss occurs in patches on the scalp, or in cases of chemically induced alopecia, which occurs during chemotherapy. The drug has been successful in treating hair loss in mice and I look forward to seeing the drug move into clinical trials.”

BiologicsMD, which has received early-stage funding from the Arkansas Economic Development Comission, holds the exclusive license to the patented technology, and is developing a line of protein therapeutics and drug/device combination products to treat hair loss and baldness, according to the release.

This is the second U.S. patent awarded for this family of discoveries. In 2013, a patent was issued for protein therapeutics used for the treatment of osteoporosis and other bone diseases. BiologicsMD is the exclusive license for it as well.

BiologicsMD is developing a portfolio of protein therapeutics and products related to bone growth for patients undergoing spinal fusion surgery for degenerative disk disease, fracture repair, osteoporosis, as well as the promotion of hair growth or prevention of hair loss in conditions such as alopecia.

“BiologicsMD is pleased to add this additional methods patent to our growing patent estate, and we look forward to pending patent applications being issued worldwide,” said David Owens, Chief Executive Officer of BiologicsMD. “Our goal is continued pre-clinical and clinical development of our portfolio of new products to help treat human disease.”

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