Aphios
Corporation Granted Chinese Patent for
Isolation of Taxol® from Yew Needles
May
23, 2000
— Aphios
Corporation has been granted a Chinese Patent entitled “Method
and Apparatus for Extracting Taxol from Source Material.”
The patent will be grated on June 10, 2000, and will be
made available for licensing to Chinese pharmaceutical companies
and/or multinational pharmaceutical companies interested
in doing business in China.
Taxol®
is the best-selling cancer drug in the history of our fight
against cancer. It works by preventing cells from sub-dividing
rapidly, a fundamental characteristic of all cancerous cells.
This unique anti-mitotic (prevents mitosis or division of
cells) works on a cellular and molecular level, and should
have generic applicability to different cancers. The marketplace
for Taxol® exceeds $2 billion,
and is expected to increase with its approval for new cancer
indications and clinical use for non-cancer related diseases.
Taxol® is primarily manufactured by the Bristol-Myers
Squibb Company in a multi-step (9-step) semi-synthetic process
from a precursor taxoid, 10-deacetyl baccatin III (10-DAB).
10-DAB is an intermediate, which is isolated and purified
from yew species such as Taxus baccata in a second
but primary multi-step process. Historically developed
by the National Cancer Institute and Hauser Chemical Company,
Taxol® was first isolated and manufactured from the bark of
the slow-growing Pacific yew, Taxus brevifolia.
Aphios isolates and manufactures an all-natural Taxol®
in a 4-step process that is cost-effective and environmental-friendly.
The process also produces precursor taxoids, 10-DAB and
cephalomannine which can be semi-synthetically converted
to Taxol® in a 3-step process,
as by-products. The process uses near-critical and supercritical
fluids with or without polar co-solvents (SuperFluids™).
These fluids are normally gases, which when compressed,
exhibit enhanced thermodynamic properties. SuperFluids™
are used for the selective extraction and chromatographic
purification (CXP) of taxoids from the bark, roots
and renewable needles of the yew tree. The CXP process
has proven to be rapid (isolation times between 40 minutes
and 4 hours), efficient (yields of more than 90 %), cost-effective
(as much as 75 % lower in costs than organic phase techniques),
and environmental-friendly (eliminates use of toxic organic
solvents and utilizes renewable leaves/needles).
Aphios
Corporation is a privately held, research and development
company headquartered at 3-E Gill Street, Woburn, Massachusetts
01801, USA, tel: (781) 932-6933, fax: (781) 932-6865, e-mail:
aphios@aol.com. The Company is developing therapeutics
for health maintenance and the treatment of human diseases
with a focus on CNS, cancer, and other infectious diseases.
Taxol®
is a registered trademark of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Company
###
