Rexahn Pharmaceuticals Granted US Patent for Novel Anti-cancer Isoquinolinamine Compounds

Rexahn Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical stage pharmaceutical company commercializing potential best in class oncology and CNS therapeutics, today announced that the United States Patent & Trademark Office has issued U.S. Patent No. 8,034,829 to Rexahn, entitled "5, 6, or 7-Substituted-3-(hetero) arylisoquinolinamine derivatives and therapeutic use thereof."This patent covers several new isoquinolinamine compounds and their pharmaceutical composition and method for producing an anti-tumor effect. The patent specifically covers Rexahn's compound RX-8243, currently in pre-clinical development.In a recently published study in Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters [20:5277-5281, 2010], RX-8243 exhibited potent anti-tumor properties in several cancer cell lines, as well as in paclitaxel-resistant human colorectal xenograft models. RX-8243 also demonstrated a synergistic cytotoxic effect when combined with several known cancer drugs against human cancer cells.Rick Soni, President of Rexahn, commented, "This new US patent for arylisoquinolinamine compounds is an important step in the development of RX-8243 and further strengthens our global intellectual property position around our oncology pipeline."