ROCKVILLE, Md., April 30, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Nabi Biopharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:NABI) announced today that the European Patent Office (EPO) upheld the Company's European Patent No. EP 1,135,166 (Hapten Carrier Conjugates for Treating and Preventing Nicotine Addiction) that covers its NicVAX(r) vaccine. The EPO issued this patent to Nabi in late 2004 with an expiration date of January 12, 2019.
In July 2005, Cytos Biotechnology AG filed a Notice of Opposition against Nabi's European patent and the Company filed its response in December 2005. The EPO notified Nabi in September 2007 that the opposition filing was admissible and held a hearing on April 23, 2008. The EPO cancelled some claims in the patent that do not affect the primary claim protecting Nabi Biopharmaceuticals' exclusive use of NicVAX for its intended purpose of treating and preventing nicotine addiction. Nabi plans to appeal these ancillary claim cancellations.
About Nabi Biopharmaceuticals
Nabi Biopharmaceuticals leverages its experience and knowledge in powering the immune system to develop products that target serious medical conditions in the areas of nicotine addiction and gram-positive bacterial infections. Nabi Biopharmaceuticals is currently developing NicVAX(r) (Nicotine Conjugate Vaccine), an innovative and proprietary investigational vaccine for treatment of nicotine addiction and prevention of smoking relapse, and StaphVAX(r) (Staphylococcus aureus Polysaccharide Conjugate Vaccine), a vaccine designed to prevent the most dangerous and prevalent strains of S. aureus bacterial infections. The company is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland. For additional information about Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, please visit our Web site: http://www.nabi.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this release that are not strictly historical are forward-looking statements including statements about plans to appeal the ancillary claim cancellations. You can identify these forward-looking statements because they involve our expectations, beliefs, projections, anticipations or other characterizations of future events or circumstances. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of any number of factors. These factors include, but are not limited to, risks relating to our ability to: successfully pursue strategic and other alternatives; obtain successful clinical trial results; receive PhosLo milestone and royalty proceeds; successfully partner with third parties to fund, develop, and manufacture our pipeline products, including NicVAX and our gram-positive infections products; realize anticipated cost saving; attract and maintain the human and financial resources to bring to market products in development; depend upon third parties to manufacture our products; achieve approval and market acceptance of our products; enter into and maintain arrangements with third parties to market and sell our products; comply with reporting and payment obligations under government rebate and pricing programs; raise additional capital on acceptable terms, or at all; and re-pay our outstanding convertible senior notes when due. Many of these factors are more fully discussed, as are other factors, in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 29, 2007 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.