Icoria Receives Notice of Allowance on Tissue Analysis Patent
September 29 2005 - 9:30AM
PR Newswire (US)
Allowed patent covers measurement of several tissue structure
features for high-throughput screening RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK,
N.C., Sept. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Biotechnology company
Icoria, Inc. (OTC:ICOR.OB) (BULLETIN BOARD: ICOR.OB) today
announced that it has received a Notice of Allowance from the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office for a pending patent application
related to the high throughput measurement of blood vessels in a
tissue sample. This recently allowed patent application is a part
of the portfolio of issued and pending patents that Icoria
purchased in 2004 in the acquisition of TissueInformatics.Inc. The
allowed patent application, entitled "Methods for Quantitative
Analysis of Blood Vessel Structure," is drawn to cover the methods
of geometrical analysis that enable the automated measurement of
several features of images of tissue. These methods allow fast,
repeatable and accurate analysis of tissue samples. The
proof-of-concept work underlying the application involved a
cardiovascular device study in an animal model of the
restenosis-like response of blood vessels injured by balloon
angioplasty. Possible applications for the technology include the
cardiovascular device market. "Quantitative tissue analysis
represents an important advance in characterizing disease
progression and, as in the proof-of-concept work here, potential
therapeutic outcomes," said Thomas Colatsky, Chief Scientific
Officer and Vice President of Research. "Our growing portfolio of
patents covering methods of quantitative tissue analysis not only
supports our internal capabilities in biomarker discovery, but may
also represent a potential licensing opportunity for companies
requiring new ways of extracting high content biological image data
for clinical and preclinical research." Icoria has four issued U.S.
patents and thirteen U.S. and international patent applications in
its quantitative tissue analysis portfolio. The company has a total
of 70 pending U.S. patent applications, 42 pending international
patent applications, and 24 issued U.S. patents. About Icoria On
September 20, 2005, Icoria announced that it had executed a merger
agreement with Clinical Data Inc. (NASDAQ:CLDA) whereby Clinical
Data will acquire Icoria in an all-stock transaction valued at up
to $12.5 million. The acquisition is expected to close late this
year or in early 2006, pending approval by Icoria's shareholders.
More information on this transaction is available at
http://www.icoria.com/. More information on Clinical Data is
available at http://www.clda.com/. Icoria, Inc. is a biotechnology
company focused on the discovery of novel, multi-parameter
biomarkers using its unique multi-platform approach. Icoria intends
to use these future biomarkers internally to develop multi-analyte
diagnostics to define and grade pathology or disease state with a
high level of specificity and sensitivity, and use its technology
to help collaborators and customers develop better, safer drugs and
diagnostics and to identify targets, leads and drug/diagnostic
combinations for liver injury, metabolic disorders and cancer.
Icoria's shares trade on the over the counter bulletin board. This
press release contains forward-looking statements including, but
not limited to, Icoria's acquisition by Clinical Data, Inc., the
Company's expectations for its healthcare based business model and
its biomarker discovery platform. Such forward-looking statements
are based on management's current expectations and are subject to a
number of risks, factors and uncertainties that may cause actual
results, events and performance to differ materially from those
referred to in the forward-looking statements. These risks, factors
and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, Icoria's ability
to identify biomarkers, early stage of development, history of net
losses, technological and product development uncertainties,
reliance on research collaborations, uncertainty of additional
funding and ability to protect its patents and proprietary rights.
Certain of these and other risks are identified in Icoria's
Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2005,
March 31, 2005, as amended, and its Annual Report on Form 10-K for
the year ended December 31, 2004, both as filed with the Securities
and Exchange Commission. The Company does not intend to update any
of the forward-looking statements after the date of this release to
conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our
expectations, except as may be required by law. DATASOURCE: Icoria,
Inc. CONTACT: Media-Public Relations of Icoria, Inc.,
+1-919-425-2999 Web site: http://www.icoria.com/
http://www.clda.com/
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