Patent focus on antiparasitic agents: May - October 1999

Abstract

Patent applications germane to parasite chemotherapy are reviewed for the period May to October, 1999. The scope of the review, covering antiprotozoal and antihelmintic agents has been extended to include the atypical unicellular fungus Pneumocystis carinii, the causative agent of the AIDS-associated disease Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP). This organism although phylogenically related to fungi is ‘protozoan-like’ in its response to drugs and often appears in patents classified as a parasite. Reviews are presented from 16 patents. Somewhat surprisingly no applications of interest emerged concering helminth chemotherapy. Specifically the review reports on compounds of relevance to the chemotherapy of malaria, leishmaniasis and PCP, and is organised according to disease indication. A brief introduction to each disease precedes the patent analysis.

• artemisinins
• bis-amidines
• camptothecin
• dihydrofolate reductase
• dioncophyllines
• echinocandins
• erythromycins
• histone deacetylase
• iron chelators
• leishmaniasis
• malaria
• miltefosine
• Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia
• topoisomerases