OKYO Pharma ("OKYO" or the "Company") - announces issuance of U.S. Patent No. 11,254,720 covering OKYO’s dry eye drug candidate OK-101 for use to treat ocular neuropathic pain

OKYO Pharma ("OKYO" or the "Company") - announces issuance of U.S. Patent No. 11,254,720 covering OKYO’s dry eye drug candidate OK-101 for use to treat ocular neuropathic pain

LONDON, Feb. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OKYO Pharma Limited (LSE: OKYO; OTCQB: EMMLF), a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of novel molecules to treat inflammatory dry eye diseases and ocular pain, today announced that the patent entitled “Methods and Systems for Designing and/or Characterizing Soluble Lipidated Ligand Agents” has been issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) as U.S. Patent No. 11,254,720. This patent contains key claims covering OK-101 to treat neuropathic pain.

OK-101 is OKYO’s lead pre-clinical compound and is a novel long-acting anti-inflammatory drug candidate being developed to treat patients with dry eye disease (DED). The drug, planned to be administered topically, is anticipated to open human studies with a Phase 2 clinical trial in DED patients in Q4, 2022. OKYO successfully completed a pre-IND (Investigational New Drug) meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on February 14^th, 2022, regarding its non-clinical and clinical development plans.

“The pain reducing feature of OK-101 offers the opportunity that our drug can potentially treat neuropathic corneal pain, a severe, chronic and debilitating disease for which there are no approved commercial treatments currently available” said Raj Patil, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of OKYO. “We are also excited about the pain-relieving potential of a dry eye drug because a considerable number of dry eye patients suffer from ocular pain. OK-101 could provide pain relief in addition to reducing ocular inflammation in the millions of patients suffering from DED.”

“We have made significant progress with our pre-IND work on OK-101 and are planning to file the IND to treat DED in Q3/Q4 2022, followed by the commencement of a Phase 2 trial in DED patients in Q4 2022,” said Dr. Gary S. Jacob, CEO of OKYO. “We believe that OK-101 can provide a new way to treat DED patients who are presently not well served by drugs currently approved for treating dry eye disease.”

The person who arranged for the release of this announcement on behalf of the Company was Gary S. Jacob, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of OKYO.

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION FOR THE PURPOSES OF ARTICLE 7 OF REGULATION 2014/596/EU WHICH IS PART OF DOMESTIC UK LAW PURSUANT TO THE MARKET ABUSE (AMENDMENT) (EU EXIT) REGULATIONS (SI 2019/310) ("UK MAR"). UPON THE PUBLICATION OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT, THIS INSIDE INFORMATION (AS DEFINED IN UK MAR) IS NOW CONSIDERED TO BE IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.

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