12: BioPorto obtains its first NGAL patent in the US
June 27 2012
Announcement no. 12
The US Patent and Trademark Office has approved the issuance of BioPorto’s patent (application no. 12/531,986), concerning the use of a ratio between NGAL concentrations in urine and plasma to obtain extremely precise diagnostic values for identifying acute kidney injury.
The patent protects a method which involves a comparison of NGAL levels in urine and plasma to increase the diagnostic specificity for and sensitivity to acute kidney injury. The method supplements the cut-off patent in certain clinical situations and can also work independently as an extremely precise alternative. The company’s The NGAL Test™ is ideal for exploiting the full potential of the ratio method, as it allows for measurements in both urine and plasma under identical conditions.
In addition to the recently approved NGAL ratio patent, BioPorto has submitted a patent application in the US for the NGAL cut-off method which specifies a cut-off of 250 ng/mL or higher, which can be used for diagnosing acute kidney injury.This application is still being processed by the US Patent and Trademark Office.The NGAL cut-off method slightly reduces specificity compared to the ratio method, but has the advantage of requiring only one sample, either plasma or urine, to be analyzed.The NGAL Test™ is also ideal for using this analysis method to identify acute kidney injury.
