R&D Activities - Research Programmes

The focus of internal discovery is to reformulate known drugs suitable for the topical route of administration in dermatology.  Serentis has discovery programmes in commercially attractive therapeutic areas including:

·       Acne
·       Psoriasis
·       Rosacea

The generation and maintenance of intellectual property (IP) is central to the Serentis business strategy. The Company’s products are all protected with robust threshold IP, with the potential for expanding the IP portfolio during the development process.

Protection of products based on known drugs and their templates involves a highly innovative and expansive approach and internal research projects are developed with early patent protection in mind.  A low-risk approach of combining a new dermatological use for an established agent with pharmaceutical or chemical enhancement technology allows for broad patent claims, central to product differentiation, with real clinical benefits.  Established drugs that have potential in new dermatological indications are optimised by modifying the pharmaceutical properties either by reformulation or chemical enhancement of the core template.  So in addition to the use patents around the established drug and new formulations, Serentis will generate a portfolio of NCE patents to form a strong IP estate around the product concept.  

The Serentis Management Team has a proven track record in achieving granted patents, inventing new therapeutic uses for existing drugs, creating additional value to the IP estate with formulations, combinations, single enantiomer switches, physical chemistry (i.e. polymorphs), process chemistry, simple chemical modifications (i.e. new salts and pro-drugs) and NCE patents.  More than 70 patent applications have been made by the team.