FluoroPharma Medical Granted Additional Patent Protection

FluoroPharma Medical recently announced that composition of matter patents covering AZPET, the company's Alzheimer's Disease agent, have been issued by the U.S. patent office expiring in 2028. FluoroPharma has also been granted patent rights in China for BFPET, its imaging agent for measuring cardiovascular blood flow. The patents will expand the company's intellectual property protection in these important growth markets where diagnostic imaging is playing an increasingly significant role in the early detection of disease.

FluoroPharma is developing breakthrough diagnostic imaging products that utilize positron emission tomography (PET) technology, a molecular imaging platform that is growing rapidly due to its inherently superior sensitivity and specificity compared to other imaging options. The company's imaging products will give clinicians the ability to detect and assess pathology before clinical manifestation of diseases.

"There is an urgent need to encourage fast, early diagnostic intervention and to recognize the advantages that early diagnosis entails for both patients and overall economics of healthcare systems around the globe," stated Dr. David Elmaleh, FluoroPharma's Chairman of the Board of Directors and inventor of the technology. "Improved patient outcomes and more appropriate treatments are possible if better, earlier diagnoses are made. Our agents harness the power of PET/CT to give this utility."

"Strong composition of matter patents in both the U.S. and high growth markets like China are very important to the commercial potential for BFPET and AZPET," commented Thijs Spoor, FluoroPharma's President and Chief Executive Officer. "China represents one of the most significant sources for growth of PET technology and therefore PET imaging agents. This patent grant along with the others in our growing patent estate should add to the value of FluoroPharma's technology and be recognized by potential partners."

In addition to the United States, Europe and China, patents related to FluoroPharma's portfolio of imaging compounds have been issued in Japan, Canada, Australia, Finland, Portugal, and Ireland.

October Home Sales Rise 1.3 Percent

Sales of new homes rose in October and the supply of homes on the market fell to its lowest level since April of last year, showing some healing in the battered housing sector.

The Commerce Department said this week that sales of new single-family homes edged up 1.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted 307,000-unit annual rate, which was the fastest pace in five months yet still below analysts' expectations.

The supply of new homes on the market would last 6.3 months at October's sales pace, down from 6.4 months in September.

The data fueled hopes the housing market could at least be bottoming out.

"This looks like a bottom. The market is stabilizing," said Gregory Miller, an economist at Suntrust Bank in Atlanta.

Financial markets largely dismissed the data, with investors focused on efforts in Europe to quell the region's debt crisis. Prices for U.S. stocks rose sharply on hopes fresh proposals could be emerging.

With euro zone policymakers staring into the abyss as bond investors question their ability bail out weaker members, Germany and France stepped up a drive for a fiscal union.

Europe's troubles are casting a pall over the economic outlook for the United States and the world.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-based research center for governments of industrial economies, slashed its global growth forecast and warned that the euro zone could break up.

It also warned that the impact on the economy could be more grave than widely believed.

So far, the U.S. recovery, which has made strides since the summer thanks to strong factory output and improved consumer spending, seems to be holding its own.

Retail sales soared over the Thanksgiving weekend as shoppers scooped up discounted merchandise.

A survey conducted by the National Retail Federation found sales hit a record $52.4 billion, a 16.4 percent jump over the prior year, raising hopes consumer spending would be strong over the holiday season.

But falling home prices and tighter credit continue to be the bane of the recovery, which has progressed with fits and starts since the 2007-2009 recession.

The Commerce Department's report showed the median sales price dropped 0.5 percent in October to $212,300, the lowest in a year.

Falling prices could hamper the housing market by making buyers see homes as a bad investment. Still, compared to October last year, the median price was up 4.0 percent.

The housing market has been hurt by a glut of unsold properties and an unemployment rate that has been stuck around 9 percent.

The U.S. Federal Reserve has held short-term interest rates at nearly zero since 2008 and has expanded its balance sheet in a bid to get credit to businesses and households. That has helped bring 30-year mortgage rates to record lows. The problem is that even with low rates, many would-be borrowers still cannot get a loan.

A report from the New York Federal Reserve Bank showed U.S. consumers continued to dig out from record debt loads taken on during the housing boom, with total consumer credit dropping 0.6 percent in the third quarter.

VistaGen Therapeutics Expands and Extends Collaboration Agreement

VistaGen Therapeutics, Inc. and the University Health Network (UHN), one of Canada's largest research hospitals, announced the expansion of their existing collaborative pluripotent stem cell research and development program, and extended it through September 2017.

In 2007, VistaGen and Dr. Gordon Keller, head of UHN's McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine in Toronto, agreed to combine Dr. Keller's human pluripotent stem cell biology expertise with VistaGen's proprietary Human Clinical Trials in a Test TubeTM stem cell technology platform. The platform delivers clinically relevant indications of how humans will respond to new drug candidates early in the drug development process. Dr. Ralph Snodgrass, VistaGen's President and Chief Scientific Officer, and Dr. Keller, who is chairman of VistaGen's Scientific Advisory Board, co-founded VistaGen in 1998, with the goal of using stem cell technologies to transform the way new drugs are discovered and developed.

"Our unique relationship with UHN and Dr. Keller is dynamic, innovative and directly supports the drug rescue capabilities of our Human Clinical Trials in a Test Tube™ platform," said Shawn Singh, VistaGen's Chief Executive Officer. "This research partnership gives us direct access to cutting-edge stem cell research conducted by one of the world's leading stem cell researchers at one of the world's top stem cell research institutions."

Dr. Christopher Paige, UHN's Vice President, Research, said, "We are very pleased with the progress Dr. Keller's lab and VistaGen are making in our cooperative research effort. VistaGen's support of Dr. Keller and his team, and its commitment to commercializing these technologies, give us confidence that we will soon see the remarkable promise of our collaborative stem cell research translated into therapeutic realities that will improve patients' lives."

The amended UHN agreement includes five key programs that will further support VistaGen's core drug rescue initiatives and potential cell therapy applications.

Research conducted at UHN and VistaGen labs will include the development of stem cell-based drug discovery and drug rescue technologies, using mature cardiac, liver and pancreatic beta-islet, blood and cartilage cells. The program will also focus on large-scale production of these cell types, each derived from human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPS cells), which are potentially suitable for in vivo transplantation studies and cell therapy applications.

Additionally, VistaGen and UHN scientists plan to further enhance current methods used to produce cell types derived from both human embryonic stem cells (hES cells) and hiPS cells. The research alliance also aims to establish preclinical proof-of-concept for the use of iPS cell-derived articular chondrocytes for cell therapy repair and regeneration of autologous cartilage, as well as the use of iPS cell-derived precursor cells to produce lymphocytes, granulocytic cells, red cells and blood platelets.